Morocco’s Mohammed VI Academy: Shaping Elite Soccer Talent for National Team Success

This football training center built to FIFA standards and equipped with modern facilities offers all the comfort and safety conditions to Moroccan and foreign young people who wish to practice high-level football. Conceived by King Mohammed VI, this Football Academy discovers young talents and trains them for elite football. Moroccan football owes part of its success to the Mohammed VI Academy, but also to "the involvement of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) which continues its work in the short, medium and long term to prepare the future," can be read on the FIFA website.

The construction of this jewel cost 140 million dirhams. Several high-level Moroccan players currently playing in major European clubs have passed through the Mohammed VI Academy since its inauguration in 2009 by King Mohammed VI. Some are called up to the national football team that reached the semi-finals at the World Cup in Qatar 2022. This is the case of Youssef En-Nesyri, striker of Sevilla FC (Spain), Nayef Aguerd, defender of West Ham United (England), Azzedine Ounahi, midfielder of Olympique de Marseille (France), or Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti, goalkeeper of Wydad Athletic Club of Casablanca.

The Academy covers an area of 18 hectares and has a capacity to accommodate 60 young people aged 12 to 18 who can receive quality football training while continuing their studies normally. It consists of 4 football fields compliant with FIFA standards (one in natural grass, one in beaten earth and 2 in synthetic turf), a training square, a covered and lit synthetic half-field, a training square for goalkeepers and 4 locker rooms, as well as a weight room, a medical office, a physiotherapy unit and a hydrotherapy pool.

In addition to this sports-medical hub, the center also has an educational hub and an accommodation hub. The first includes 10 classrooms, a language learning room, a computer room, rooms for teachers and the educational manager. The second includes 30 double rooms and 4 single rooms.