Morocco’s Football Federation Lures Top Binational Talent from Europe

Morocco is increasingly recruiting binational players to strengthen its teams in all categories. The most recent is Sofiane Diop, the Nice striker. Before him, Amine Adli, a striker from the French national youth team, also agreed to play for Morocco. In the U23 categories, Morocco has snatched Ilias Akhomach (Villarreal), captain of the U19 Spain team and Ilyes Housni, the PSG prodigy. Until now, Lamine Yamal is the only player who will have escaped the Moroccan federation. The 16-year-old striker playing at Barça has chosen to play for Spain, recalls Foot Mercato.

The epic of the Atlas Lions at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has also made many of these young players dream, who have understood that they have a chance to play in a World Cup by joining the Moroccan team. Another advantage of Morocco lies in its infrastructure. Colossal means have been made available by King Mohammed VI for the construction of a modern technical center, the Maamora center, to allow players to train under optimal conditions.

"In Morocco, they have the best technical center in the world. Largely. It’s phenomenal. The pitches, the medical facilities, the hotel, the pool, the restaurant... it’s five times better than Clairefontaine," said former coach Vahid Halilhodzic. "Morocco has nothing to envy other countries. I was pleasantly and exceptionally surprised by what I just saw. I’ve been to quite a few big clubs and I’ve never seen anything like it," exclaimed Sadio Mané, who had trained for a few days in this center.

Increasingly, Morocco is passing binational players through the lower categories before integrating them into the A team. Several players like Amir Richardson, Ismael Saibari, Oussama El Azzouzi, etc. have thus joined the Moroccan team, winner of the U23 AFCON this year. In the coming months, other players could join the Atlas Lions. This is the case of Brahim Diaz (Real Madrid) or Mohamed-Ali Cho (Real Sociedad).