Morocco champions of the hearts of fans from all over the world |30 December 2022
The Morocco national team
Morocco are the first African team to reach the semifinals of the Fifa World Cup ‒ an achievement that will forever remain in history!
Despite the fourth place finish after losing to Croatia in the third-place playoff match, it is safe to say that The Atlas Lions are the champions of the hearts of fans from all over the world. And they managed to win the love of millions at this World Cup in Qatar!
On the eve of the 2022 World Cup, my article about the legendary Just Fontaine who was born in Morocco and scored a record 13 goals for France in six games in a single World Cup (1958), was published in several countries. I mentioned in that article that the Frenchman Fontaine was not lucky enough to participate in the World Cup as a head coach, and that he could not lead Morocco to the 1982 World Cup. Walid Regragui has now successfully done what Fontaine failed to do.
Morocco were African champions only 46 years ago (1976) and had reached the knockout stage of the Fifa World Cup only once before. I remember well that in France 1998, I was very disappointed when Brazil lost to Norway 1:2 and kept Morocco in the group stage.
Therefore expectations from Morocco were not high at the 2022 World Cup. Of course, we know goalkeeper Bono from Sevilla, defender Achraf Hakim from Paris Saint-Germain and striker Hakim Ziyech from Chelsea. But the successful performance of Morocco as a team was unexpected.
By the way, in my predictions before the games in group stage, I said that Morocco would draw 1-1 with Croatia and Canada, and lose 0-2 to Belgium. Only my prediction of a draw against Croatia did come true, and with Belgium the score became 2-0, but Morocco won.
The Atlas Lions played bravely and were not afraid of their opponents. True, Morocco's scoring was not high ‒ only six goals in seven matches. But how the Moroccan players scored beautiful goals at the 2022 World Cup? Of course, the best and most important of them was the goal scored by Youssef En-Nesyri with a header at a record height of 2.78m from the ground against Portugal.
But on the other hand, Morocco are the leaders in clean sheets with four games at the 2022 World Cup.
By the way, goalkeeper Bono with zero goals conceded in penalty shootouts against Spain, repeated the record of Ukrainian Oleksandr Shovkovskiy who achieved such success against Switzerland in ther 2006 World Cup.
Moroccan fans also add a special colour to the 2022 World Cup.
How wonderful it was to see the players celebrate their win with their families. Pictures of Ashraf Hakimi with his mother are a decoration of the internet.
By the way during the 2022 World Cup, I was inspired by the success of the Moroccan team and compiled a list of 10 famous players of Moroccan origin who played for the national teams of other countries. What would be the results of The Atlas Lions if those famous players from this list had played for them?
10 well-known players of Moroccan origin who played for the other countries’ national teams
Marouane Fellaini (Belgium) - 87 matches, 18 goals (2007-2018)
Nacer Chadli (Belgium) - 66 matches, 8 goals (2011-)
Tarik Elyounoussi (Norway) - 60 matches, 10 goals (2008-)
Ibrahim Afellay (Netherlands) - 53 matches, 7 goals (2007-2016)
Mohamed Elyounoussi (Norway) - 49 matches, 9 goals (2014-)
Adil Rami (France) - 36 matches, 1 goal (2010-2018)
Khalid Boulahrouz (Netherlands) - 35 matches (2004-2012)
Karim Bellarabi (Germany) - 11 matches, 1 goal (2014-2016)
Matteo Guendouzi (France) - 7 matches, 1 goal (2021-)
Younes Kaboul (France) - 5 matches, 1 goal (2011-)
Rasim Movsumzadeh