Rising Moroccan Star Emerges from Family’s Football Legacy

Nayef Aguerd joined the Kénitra AC academy at a very young age, before being spotted by the technical director of the Mohammed VI Academy, Nasser Larguet in 2009. At the time, he did not know that the 12-year-old teenager was the child of Said, former first division Moroccan footballer and nephew of former Moroccan international M’Jid, "When I was doing a detection, I didn’t try to find out the kid’s name, it was just a number for me. Then I approached the club’s educator, who introduced me to the parents. I knew the reputation of his father and his uncle, but I was mainly in contact with the mother, who followed him on the educational level. His father gave him the time to assert himself and not to be "the son of", it helped him to build himself."

Nayef already dreams of a professional career in Europe to do better than his father. But his mother has other goals for him. She wanted above all for her child to succeed in his studies, the profession of footballer sometimes rhyming with precariousness. From 2009 to 2014, she takes the time to forge his personality. Nasser avoids talking to him about his father or his uncle. "I never talked to him about his father or his uncle. What mattered to us was the player, what he was going to become, avoiding comparisons," recalls Larguet, who knows the subject is not trivial. In France, I have come across many "sons of", it was limiting for them. We compare with the father, there is this idea of mimicry, we want Zizou’s children to have his level... I feel sorry for the young people. When they fall into the hands of educators who link them to their fathers’ careers, it is penalizing."

The future Marseille player has thus evolved without feeling the shadow of his father. The latter sometimes comes to watch his matches. No more. "He did not intervene," specifies Larguet. I had a system for everyone: if the parents became invasive, they left. They were there to see their children and pick them up at the end of the match, but only the staff could talk to the players on the field." Like his father, he plays the position of central defender and blossoms with all his talent. To succeed in his career, he used the services of the academy’s psychologist. "But he sometimes fell into the easy way, while I wanted him to progress in the impact. He was being elegant," Larguet continues. I threatened to fire him at the end of the season, the mother panicked..."

Nayef was able to succeed in his school life (a mention at the baccalaureate) and his five-year course at the academy. After passing through the Moroccan club FUS Rabat, the French clubs Dijon and Rennes, West Ham United in the English Premier League, he now plays for OM. He is one of the architects of the historic and exceptional journey of the Atlas Lions at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.