Like many nations, Morocco’s devotion to soccer is a vestige of its colonial past. The sport took hold in the first half of the twentieth century, when France and Spain controlled the country. After Morocco gained independence, in 1956, soccer stadiums were regularly decorated with iconography of its royal family, which dates back to the seventeenth century. More recently, Mohammed VI, the current King, opened a network of sprawling, modern soccer academies—the primary complex, in Salé, is named the Mohammed VI Football Academy—to develop domestic talent from a young age. Upward of a hundred promising adolescent boys, scouted as young as six, are admitted each year to live and train at the facility full time, in a system that resembles top youth-development programs in Europe and South America.
But the sport’s local traditions are not afraid to challenge authority. “Football in Morocco is not only entertainment,” Bourkia told me. “It is a space of identity, belonging and social expression.” Political dissent can be harshly policed outside the stadium, but domestic clubs’ most ardent fan groups, often called ultras, are brazenly outspoken in their cheering. Fans of Raja Casablanca, known as the Green Boys, belt a song titled, “F’Bladi Delmouni,” or “In My Country, They Wronged Me.” Ultras supporting the Rabat club Royal Army, ironically, recite chants that include the slogan, “The sons of bitches have become tyrants over us.” IR Tangier’s supporters cry in unison, “This life is not O.K. / It’s the reason for migration / Congrats, the country is empty.” Some groups have even been known to boo the national anthem.
Perhaps as important as Morocco’s investment in nurturing domestic talent has been its improved efforts to scout and court eligible international talent —often the descendants of emigrants who have learned the game in world-class competitive environs elsewhere. The foundation of the national team’s current so-called golden generation came from abroad. Fourteen of the twenty-six men on Morocco’s 2022 World Cup roster were born outside the country; ditto nineteen on this summer’s squad. Among them are Achraf Hakimi, the team’s captain and one of the finest defenders in the world, who was born in Spain and came up playing for Real Madrid, before landing on a star-studded Paris Saint-Germain team. Brahim Díaz, a midfielder for Real Madrid who has also played for Manchester City and A.C. Milan, briefly suited up for Spain’s national team before switching his allegiance to Morocco. Neil El Aynaoui, an emerging midfield star, was raised in eastern France, and plays professionally in Rome. “We have, I think, more talent in Europe than Morocco,” Moufakkir told me. He noted that the national team’s players speak six different languages; their primary common tongue is English.
Only nine players from Morocco’s 2022 World Cup run have returned for this year’s tournament. The most important début will be that of Mohamed Ouahbi, the team’s new coach. It was Ouahbi, born in Belgium to Moroccan parents, who helmed Morocco’s U-20 team to its championship last summer; he was placed in charge of the senior team just three months ago, after it had a disappointing showing in Afcon, Africa’s continent-wide competition. (Morocco lost in the final to Senegal, but was later granted a controversial forfeit victory after officials determined Senegal’s players had committed a disqualifying infraction by leaving the field during the game to protest a refereeing decision.) Ouahbi is a cerebral coach, favoring hybrid playing systems and mixing up attack strategies based on the opponent. “We don’t know how we’re going to play,” Moufakkir said earlier this month. He sounded excited.
Recently, I went to Amlu, a Moroccan restaurant just off Steinway Street, in Astoria, to watch Morocco’s revamped squad play one of its final tune-up games, against Madagascar. During the 2022 World Cup, Astoria, which is more than one-third immigrants and dotted with North African shops, hosted standing-room-only watch parties for Morocco’s games, and flare-lit celebrations after its wins. (A headline during the celebrations: “Astoria Restaurants Are the Epicenter of the World Cup in NYC.”) The day I visited—a Tuesday afternoon, when Morocco hosted a friendly date with the world’s hundred-and-fourth-ranked squad—was understandably quieter.
