Morocco Lures Young Belgian-Born Soccer Talents to National Team

Many young players have already turned their backs on Belgium to wear the Moroccan jersey, their country of origin. Ismaël Baouf, an 18-year-old talent from Anderlecht, left the Belgian U19s to join the Moroccan U20 team in October. Ali Maamar, a right-back at RSCA and a former Belgian international with the U17s, has also joined the Moroccan U20s.

Morocco has also snatched from Belgium the young Ilyas Bouazzaoui (Genk) who played with the Belgian U17 and U18 teams. The same goes for Ilyes Benachour (Bruges) who decided to represent Morocco from the age of 16. The Moroccan federation has also managed to convince the young Dalil Ouadrassi (KV Malines) to join the Atlas Cubs to the detriment of the Red Devils.

How can we explain the choice of dual nationals to prefer Morocco to Belgium, their country of birth? "It’s a combination of criteria that makes the vast majority of young Moroccans think they will choose Morocco rather than Belgium. First of all, the Moroccan federation is years ahead of the Belgian one in terms of youth development," explains the father of a young Belgian-Moroccan talent to Walfoot.

In Morocco, "there are shuttles to pick them up from the airport, the flights and hotel of the parents are sometimes paid for the underage players. The youth coaches take the time to conduct face-to-face interviews with each player, give them a detailed program of the next international deadlines," he added.

And to continue: "Morocco is living in 2100 compared to Belgium. We don’t even have a national stadium worthy of the name, while Morocco will soon have the largest stadium in the world, is hosting the 2025 CAN and part of the 2030 World Cup... Even in France, there is no sports complex like the one in Morocco".

Moreover, Belgium is not the only one to see "stolen" dual nationals by Morocco in recent years. Noussair Mazraoui (Netherlands), Sofyan Amrabat (Netherlands), Achraf Hakimi (Spain), Brahim Diaz (Spain), Amine Adli (France), Eliesse Ben Seghir (France), are all players who have turned their backs on the team of their country of birth to play for the Moroccan national team.