The World Cup is often much more than a sport: it touches on politics, identity and culture.
Morocco’s historic run to the semi-finals and Achraf Hakimi’s Panenka-winning penalty against Spain, his country of birth, are a potent example of this.
Fourteen of the 26-man squad in Qatar were born abroad, from the countries of Spain, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium. But the decision to play for someone’s home country, or the one you now call home, is a tense one.
It is a decision for which some Moroccan internationals have received strong criticism. Dutch soccer legend Marco van Basten called Hakim Ziyech “stupid” for choosing to play for Morocco instead of the Netherlands.
Many were surprised that Achraf Hakimi, one of the best full-backs in the world, chose Morocco over Spain. When Hakimi was training for Spain’s youth teams, he said in an interview that “it wasn’t what he had at home.” Something was missing.
“I saw that it was not the right place for me, I did not feel at home,” Hakimi told Marca.
“It was not for anything in particular, but for what I felt, because it was not what I had at home, which is the Arab culture, being Moroccan. She wanted to be here”.
Feeling like an immigrant when victory stops
The success of the two previous World Cup winners has been attributed to the multicultural composition of their teams, which represented the rich diversity and new faces of French and German society.
But that diversity has been a drawback when the winning stopped. Most famously, the 1998 French winning team was nicknamed in France as ‘Black, Blanc, Beur’ to describe the representation of black, Arab and white France.
Suddenly, after back-to-back failed international tournaments, that diversity was criticized for creating tension and disharmony within the team.
In 2011, former French national team manager Laurent Blanc reportedly suggested quotas for players of particular origins, citing that there were “too many black and Arab players” in the French system, and not enough white players “with our culture, our history”.
Soccer players such as the German Mesut Ozil, the French Karim Benzema and the Belgian Romelu Lukaku have described a conditional relationship with their citizenship when they play for their respective national teams.
Everyone has said something to the effect of: “I’m a German, a French or a Belgian when we win, an immigrant when we lose.”
It’s an experience that intensified after last year’s Euros, where three young black English footballers, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, missed a penalty in the final shootout and were met with torrents of racist abuse.
Moroccan Diaspora Scouting Network
National teams across the African continent have begun to tap into diaspora talent, but none have been as successful as Morocco.
Morocco has established exploration systems in countries where its large diaspora communities live in central and southern Europe.
“What it means is that when that player is playing senior football, he already knows it,” Salim Masoud Said, an expert on African football, told ABC.
Morocco is in stark contrast to Ghana, who tried to convince Cody Gakpo, Eddie Nketiah and Callum Hudson-Odoi to opt to play for them months before the World Cup.
According to Said, if the soccer authorities know that a player from the Moroccan diaspora is eligible, they will invite him to a training camp.
“I think Hakimi was invited to one of these camps about a decade ago,” he said.
Usually more than 20 dual nationality players are invited along with the best young players based in Morocco.
It is where the relationship with the national football association begins, when players are asked about their interest in playing for Morocco.
Morocco has continued with infrastructure spending that rivals some of the best national centers of excellence in the world.
“The king of Morocco has invested 10 million euros ($15.6 million) in football every year and has created an academy superior to the French Clairefontaine,” said Idriss, president of the Ivorian football federation. Diallo, to the French newspaper L’Equipe after Morocco’s victory over Portugal.
“Apart from South Africa, no country has as much investment as Morocco. What has happened is no coincidence,” she added.
The fruits of that labor have begun to show with the likes of Youssef En-Nesyri, Nayef Aguerd and Azzedine Ounahi, all products of the Mohammed VI academy.
Said toured Morocco’s national technical facility in Rabat, describing it as not only the best national sports center in Africa, but also among the best in the world.
“If you visit as a player who is potentially thinking about representing Morocco, you will be very impressed and captivated,” he said.
“I think many [football] Federations in Africa, especially elite ones, don’t have infrastructure like this.”
Morocco is a great reference in African football, and that can be seen in their success so far this year.
In addition to this men’s World Cup, Morocco successfully qualified for the next year’s women’s World Cup, and a club team, in both the women’s and men’s games, won the African champions league.
The Moroccan diaspora celebrates its success
Morocco’s victory celebrations have resonated not just in Rabat or Casablanca but throughout the diaspora.
In Melbourne, Djamal Abdelkhelech celebrated in the early hours of the morning after watching his country make history. His story is similar to that of so many players on the team, born in France, who returned to Morocco as children and now live in Australia.
He believes that whether you were born a Moroccan in the diaspora or in Morocco, your home is your home.
“We’re in Australia, for example, we’re not even players, but home is still home, wherever you come from,” Abdelkhelech told ABC.
“So they love their country. They love their King, their community, the culture so we never forget it, even if they were born and raised in Europe.”
What will be the impact of this World Cup?
Whatever happens in the final weeks of the World Cup, Morocco’s race will have a lasting impact on the way African nations organize their infrastructure and seek out diaspora talent.
Said described the search for players from the diaspora as international soccer’s response to club soccer’s transfer window.
“I think this is what makes Morocco’s success really interesting, because now that they’ve reached the semi-final, the next great Moroccan footballer in France, Spain… will they really select to play for Morocco?” he asked her.
Maybe they will, and maybe in contrast to Ziyech’s case, he won’t be called “stupid” for much longer.
