Morocco’s Diverse Squad Faces Spain in World Cup Showdown

Morocco, Spain’s opponent in the round of 16, has 14 players who were born abroad, including in six countries of which they also have nationality. Among them, there are two Spaniards: right-back Achraf Hakimi, born in Madrid and trained at Real Madrid, and goalkeeper Munir Mohamedi, born in Melilla and who made his debut in Ceuta, reports La Vanguardia, strongly criticized today by the Moroccan press for this article considered racist.

In addition to these two "Spaniards", the Moroccan team is also full of four "Dutch". These are Hakim Ziyech, Noussair Mazroui, Sofyan Amrabat and Zakaria Aboukhal. Three other Atlas Lions were born in France (Sofiane Boufal, Amine Harit and Romain Saïss), one in Canada, (Yassine Bounou), one in Italy (Walid Cheddira) and three in Belgium (Selim Amallah, Ilias Chair and Bilal El Khannous).

These dual-nationals who are the strength of Morocco find themselves in an embarrassing situation when Morocco has to play a match against their country of birth. This was the case with players El Khannouss and Ilias Chair during the match against Belgium. The same situation could occur on Tuesday with Abdelssamad Ezzalzouli, the FC Barcelona striker currently on loan to Osasuna.

Ez Abde had declined Morocco’s offer, which called him up in December last year to take part in the Africa Cup of Nations in January, preferring to stay in Barcelona in the hope of a call from Luis Enrique to the national team. But the call being slow to come, the young player changed his position and accepted Morocco’s call to participate in the World Cup in Qatar.