Morocco’s Football Success Has Become the Symbol of a New Era

Morocco’s Atlas Lions made history when they became the first African and Arab team to reach the World Cup semi-finals in 2022, topping a group that contained Belgium and Croatia before knocking out Spain and Portugal. They haven’t slowed down since, following up with a record run of 19 consecutive victories and winning their first-ever Olympic football medal. 

In a conversation about how Moroccans felt about hosting AFCON, Tangier-based photographer and curator Mehdi Sefrioui mentioned that football has given Moroccans a long-overdue sense of pride in their nation. With Morocco currently ranked sixth in the FIFA World Ranking, far above any other African or Arab country, this conversation is worth revisiting.

“My generation grew up with the idea that we’re a third-world state, just a poor country in Africa,” says Sefrioui, a millennial. “What kind of bright future do you imagine for yourself when you are educated with these bad examples about yourself, and the only good examples you can see are far and foreign, and sometimes blonde with green eyes and foreign names?” 

When Moroccans like Hicham El Guerrouj or Nawal El Moutawakel excelled in international sports, they brought pride to their country, but there was a sense of exceptionalism. “These were selected, very talented people having a very lucky day,” says Sefrioui. “Now we’re talking about success that is politically motivated, gets funds, has a structure, and the right people at the right time.” 

A successful state intervention

The success of Moroccan football is the result of a carefully planned strategy and the right kind of investment in infrastructure, which has been created from scratch. This, according to Sefrioui, is the key to its success. “When Morocco tries to build something new on something old, it crumbles, because the foundations are already rotten,” he says. “But when they construct something in a new territory, it results in the football federation, a successful handling of COVID, new hospitals, and universities. It's not perfect, but it gives the young generation a vision for themselves and their country that we didn't grow up with.”

This is not to undermine the 2025 youth protests and their criticism of the bad handling of the state budget. To Sefrioui, the conversation should not be about whether Morocco should build schools or stadiums, but rather about how the existing budget can best be used to invest in everything. “Having a good sports team has many positive consequences in terms of tourism and diplomatic relations,” he says.

A strong diaspora link 

In May, OkayAfrica traced Morocco’s exceptionally strong link with its diaspora. This relationship has come in handy for its national squad, which has the highest number of foreign-born players and includes star athletes like Achraf Hakimi and the young breakout sensation Ayoub Bouaddi. 

“It means a lot to have players from the diaspora who see Morocco as something that they are proud of, not something that they are ashamed of, and they would rather play with Morocco than play with France or Spain,” says Sefrioui. He chuckles at the fact that the Moroccan locker room is so multi-lingual that some children of the diaspora cannot easily communicate with each other as they speak a mix of Darija, Amazigh dialects, and foreign languages. 

“The fact that people now see Morocco as something they want to invest their careers in sends an immense message,” says Sefrioui. “Not just because we score two goals against some country, but because it sends a message that when we have this kind of politics with a clear direction that comes from the top, and that is applied in all the different stages of this process, we can do well.” 

Rewriting Morocco’s colonial narrative

While the Moroccan squad is on the pitch with the hopes of going far, their performance resonates way beyond stadiums. “When you see Moroccans doing better than the French, the Spanish or the Belgians, it feels that the horizon of possibilities is finally opening for a country where everybody was told that you cannot do this or that,” says Sefrioui. “We were told that we only have infrastructure because the French colonizer left us two schools and three railways. But now we are trying to write our history on our own terms.” 

A long-term vision for 2030

After AFCON, Morocco made a major coaching change, replacing Walid Regragui with Mohamed Ouahbi. “There is a long-term vision for when we host the World Cup in 2030,” explains Sefrioui. “We have a team in transition between older players that are playing less and new players who are supposed to be the next generation of talent. Ouahbi can start with the young players now, to have them be at their mature point in their career four years from now.”

Even though they entered the competition with high expectations, Morocco does not need to win this World Cup to feel proud of what their team and country are achieving. “Morocco, currently ranking in sixth place, is amazing,” says Sefrioui. “If we lose, but we lose with good football, I’m sure that Moroccans will be very happy.”