The former Wydad Casablanca manager is the first national manager since 2016 and will be responsible for selecting players for the World Cup in Qatar
The enthusiasm for football in Morocco has forced the Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) to make difficult decisions in recent months. The penultimate was to fire Vahid Halilhodzic on August 11 and the last was to appoint Walid Regragui as Morocco coach.
The 46-year-old former Moroccan international player, born in the French commune of Corbeil-Essonnes, north of Paris, takes the reins of his country’s national team after winning the African championship with Wydad Casablanca, after a 2-0 win over Al Ahly in the CAF Champions League final on 30 May 2022. In 2012, he was assistant coach of the Moroccan national team for a year with Rachid Taoussi as head coach.
Fouzi Lekjaa, President of the FRMF, said during Regragui’s presentation at the Mohammed VI Football Complex: “We are all behind Walid Regragui in his new mission at the helm of the national team. We wish him good luck.”
PHOTO- Moroccan coach Walid Regragui with the national team jersey during the press conference announcing him as the new coach of the Moroccan national team
This appearance was decisive for the future of the Atlas Lions and the goals they have set for the years to come. The president assured that “the clear and precise objectives revolve around qualification for the 2024 African Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire and the final phase of the 2026 World Cup”, the year up to which Regragui’s contract.
There was no reference to the Qatar World Cup which starts next November and where Morocco hope to do as well as Mexico 86, when they became the first African team in history to reach the round of 16 of a World Cup. We therefore understand that the objective was to be in Qatar and that all that remains is to take advantage of a historic team that will evolve in group F against Croatia, Belgium and Canada.
PHOTO- Moroccan coach Walid Regragui during a press conference on 31 August 2022
For his part, Regragui expressed his ‘pride for this appointment and for having evolved in the past as a national team player. To put an end to any controversy over the players likely to be called up for the Moroccan selection, the new coach assured that “the door of the national team is wide open to all players, whether they play in the national championship or in the foreigner”.
Ziyech is the most wanted player. His bad relationship with Halilhodzic pushed him to leave the Lions, but thanks to the intermediation of Lekjaa and the arrival of Regragui, everything will be back to normal.
AFP/FRANCK FIFE – The Moroccan football federation sacked Halilhodzic from his position as a national coach on August 11, 2022, nearly 100 days before the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar
Spain remembers Regragui after a three-season stint in the Primera División with Racing Santander between 2004 and 2007. In total, he made 26 league appearances and another in the Copa del Rey in 2005. The player arrived from the French club Ajaccio but did not integrate into a club accustomed to the dance of coaches with Alcaraz, Nando Yosu, Preciado, and Miguel Angel Portugal in three seasons on the bench. In his first year, he coincided with the Tunisian Mehdi Nafti and after completing his contract, he ended his career in Grenoble.
