Raja, Wydad, Berkane and others. Moroccan clubs rushed to Algerian players during the summer transfer window to strengthen their ranks, before the start of the 2022/2023 season. Definitely, football is spared by the deep crisis between the two countries.
The “Algerian Raja Casablanca” team. Thus headlined the famous Algerian daily Echourouk its article published in early August 2022, following the arrival, during the first weeks of the summer transfer window, of two players from the eastern neighbor, namely Mehdi Boukassi and Yousri Bouzok, from and of the Iraqi Air Force club and the Algerian club Paradou AC respectively. Since then, the Casablanca club has seen the arrival of another Algerian player, the talented attacking midfielder, Raouf Ben Ghaith, from Mouloudia in Algiers, but also the premature departure of Mehdi Boukassi to the Libyan club Al Nasr. in the form of a loan.
Including the former goalkeeper of CR Belouizdad, Gaya Merbah, recruited in January 2022, Raja will play the new 2022/2023 season with three Algerian players in its ranks, two of whom are off to a good start. It must be said that despite the strong political tensions between Rabat and Algiers for almost two years which led, among other things, to the breakdown of relations in August 2021, football ties are developing in the opposite direction.
History repeats itself
The Casablanca club is thus reviving its past marked by the passage through its ranks of several big names in Algerian football, both as players and coaches. The club’s supporters still remember the “dean” of technicians, Rabeh Saadan, who was in charge of Raja when it won its very first African Champions League in 1989. Or the former international and brilliant playmaker, Tahar Chérif El-Ouazzani, who wore the green colors of Raja between 1993 and 1995.
This common green between the Casablanca club and the Algerian selection could perhaps explain this curious relationship between the two parties, which go beyond the limits of the lawn, while even in the stands, the Rajaoui supporters do not hesitate to chant songs in honor of the bonds of brotherhood between the two peoples.
Other clubs are following in Raja’s footsteps for this new 2022/2023 season, starting with rival Wydad Casablanca, which made an excellent move by formalizing the arrival of Algerian international defender Hocine Benayada on September 3. , from the Tunisian club Etoile du Sahel. He thus replaces his compatriot Imadeddine Boubker, who arrived this summer from the Saoura Sports Youth, before separating amicably from the Reds a few days later.
In addition to the two Casablanca giants, other Moroccan clubs have chosen to turn to the East during the summer transfer window. This is the case of the Renaissance of Berkane, champion of the African Confederation Cup and the Throne Cup, which hired an Algerian expert in Moroccan football, in this case Abdelhak Benchikha, as a coach. In terms of Algerian players, Hassania d’Agadir recruited Aziz Abdi, Ittihad de Tanger signed Abdellah El Mouden, Mouloudia d’Oujdia took on the services of Ali Haroun, while Mohamed Walid Ben Chrifa will wear the jersey of the Olympic club of Khouribga.
