Morocco Set to Unveil Squad for World Cup Qualifiers with New Additions Expected

Chamseddine Talbi (Club Bruges, Belgium), who recently chose Morocco as his sporting nationality, as well as Anas Salah-Eddine, the left-back of AS Roma who has decided to play for Morocco instead of the Netherlands, and Hamza Igamane, playing for the Scottish Rangers, should be on Regragui’s list. The defender Samy Mmaee of Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia could also make his return to the national team after a long absence.

The Moroccan coach should also call up new players to replace certain injured starters, such as the forwards Zakaria Aboukhlal (Toulouse FC) or Ayoub El Kaabi (Olympiacos). Due to his recovery capacity, Aboukhlal could however resume training by next week. Nothing is certain regarding El Kaabi who is undergoing intensive treatment and rehabilitation sessions to be ready for the match scheduled next Thursday in the Europa League, after missing the last three matches with his club.

The coach of the Moroccan national team would have called up only three players from the Moroccan championship. These are the defender Abdelhak Assal and the goalkeeper Munir Mohamedi, both playing for Renaissance de Berkane, and the goalkeeper Rachid Ghanimi from FUS Rabat. Regragui should publish his final list of 26 or 28 players this Friday during a press conference. The called-up players are expected to meet on March 16 at the Mohammed VI Football Center in Rabat for a closed-door training camp.

The Atlas Lions will have two training sessions per day until March 21, the date on which they will cross swords with Niger at the Oujda stadium, during the fifth round of the qualifications for the 2026 World Cup which will take place in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Achraf Hakimi and his teammates will then face the Tanzanian team on March 25, during the sixth round. The Moroccan team is the leader of Group E with 9 points, followed by Niger and Tanzania, tied with 6 points.