Morocco Honors Abdelhak Nouri in Historic World Cup Quarter-Final Celebration

Coming back from the locker room after the match, the Moroccan team celebrated their historic victory over Spain and their first-ever qualification for the World Cup quarter-finals in a very special way. The Atlas Lions posed around a jersey with the name and number 34 of Abdelhak Nouri. The Dutch-Moroccan player, nicknamed "Appie", was destined for a bright future in football, but a cardiac arrest ruined his career.

While playing a friendly match with Ajax Amsterdam against Werder Bremen in July 2017, Nouri had suffered a cardiac arrest. Plunged into a vegetative state, he has suffered serious and permanent brain damage ever since. This incident definitively kept him away from the pitch. After several years of suffering, Ajax Amsterdam agreed to pay 7.85 million euros as compensation to the player’s family, decided to retire his number "34" and continue to award a trophy in Nouri’s name each year.