Morocco’s Women’s Soccer Rise: Former Coach Renard Praises Development

How to explain the spectacular progress of Morocco in women’s football? "It is a will of the (Royal Moroccan Football) Federation and of the president Fouzi Lekjaa which started in 2016. I was right in the middle of it. I have one of my assistants, David Ducci, who was at the Moroccan Technical Directorate and who was in charge of women’s football. He was training very early in the morning. The training sessions were at 6:30 am," assures Hervé Renard in an interview with RFI. He will explain that they started like that, with players who certainly were not at the level of what they are today.

"They also knew how to recruit binational players, so it’s working. Today, they have replaced coach Pedros with the one who managed to win the world championship title, it’s not by chance," added the former coach of the Moroccan men’s national team, stressing that the Royal Moroccan Football Federation "has very high objectives". "What we saw at the 2023 World Cup is just a glimpse of what Moroccan women’s football will be in the years to come because they will make a lot of progress and it will no longer be the team we saw at this last World Cup," he is convinced.

The French technician also believes that the first World Cup that Africa will win could be a Women’s World Cup. "But it can also be a men’s one. There are teams that are getting closer," he said, noting that "the level is so high that winning a world competition is very difficult." Returning to the historic breakthrough of the Atlas Lions at the Qatar 2022 World Cup, he will say: "Now for Morocco, to be a semi-finalist of a World Cup, I think the word ’exceptional’ is not even strong enough."