THE MOROCCAN GUARDIOLA
Walid Regragui, the Atlas Lions of Morocco national coach, has meticulously and enviably carved a name for himself in the history of football, the World Cup, to be precise. A former right back, his playing career was predominantly spent in the French leagues. For him, his first connection with his Moroccan heritage growing up was school holidays spent visiting relatives in Morocco.
Walid Regragui’s mother, Fatima, who has lived in Paris for more than 50years, has never traveled to watch her son as a player or coach, but Walid insisted she comes to the World Cup in Qatar. Result? He inspired Morocco to a historic semi-final place. He has now become the first African manager to get this far at a World Cup. And as the first African nation to get to a semi-final, Morocco now enjoy the backing of all of Africa and all of the Arab world as well.
Morocco has a diaspora across Europe approaching five million. The majority, over one million, settled in France but there are large Moroccan communities in Italy, Holland, Spain, and Belgium. The country’s football association began a campaign in 2014 to bring back talents belonging to the soil. Talented footballers with Moroccan heritage would be incentivised to represent the country rather than the nation of their birth.
Walid Regragui was mocked as “avocado head” when he was appointed four months ago, and now this proven winner has unified a squad with 14 overseas-born players to make World Cup history. Only 3 of Morocco’s starting eleven were born in the country. Part of the success — and one of the key reasons they have been embraced by fans from all nations — is due to Regragui’s decision to invite the families of the players to Qatar and make them a key part of the team’s journey. All players were offered the chance for their families to enjoy an all-expenses-paid trip to Qatar. Their World Cup base often resembles something more like a family organised summer camp.
Not that his appointment was universally popular. Underwhelmed pundits mocked the balding coach disparagingly as “avocado head”. To his credit, Regragui went along with the joke, posing with an avocado in a FIFA interview ahead of the World Cup. Those critics are no doubt stony-faced now. They are the underdogs taking the World (Cup) by storm — and if you are not a football fan, you will be forgiven for not being able to name a single player in the Atlas Lions team.
Whatever happens against France on Wednesday, Morocco have done themselves proud. Avocado will be very much on the menu.
