Morocco’s FIFA World Cup run is a migration success story

The Moroccan national football team faced adversity in 2018. They had made it to the World Cup finals for the first time in decades thanks to their coach, Herve Renard. Renard is well-known in African football, and he recently got a lot of attention for helping Saudi Arabia beat Argentina in a shocking upset at the World Cup.Morocco, on the other hand, lacked the individual talent required to compete in a tournament of that caliber. But there was one who begged to be their representative. In the early 2010s, Munir El-Haddadi was one of the most sought-after players in Europe. He was a Spaniard whose skills were honed at La Masia and who was thought to be a future star for Barcelona.
Munir was proud of his North African roots because his father was born in Morocco and moved to Spain when he was young. The catch was that he had represented Spain at all age groups and had made one senior national team appearance in 2014. Morocco petitioned FIFA to change the rule, making a minimum of three appearances the norm for being unable to switch national teams, and while it took a few years, FIFA relented in 2020.
Morocco never got to see Munir at his best. By 2020, his promise had faded, and he never quite delivered for the Atlas Lions. However, by leading the charge to change the rules, Morocco demonstrated how reliant the national team has been on migrants and naturalized foreign citizens.That philosophy has led to their remarkable run at the 2022 World Cup, where they became the second African team to qualify for the knockout stage from a difficult group. They played against Belgium and Croatia, two of the best teams in Europe. Belgium finished third and Croatia finished second in their leagues in 2018. They won four points without giving up a goal. Their 2-0 victory over Belgium was hailed as a shock around the world, but given their players’ pedigree and recent results, it didn’t seem quite as surprising.
Their impressive performances were built around players who began their careers in European leagues, as citizens of other countries as a result of ancestral immigration, and as youth players abroad. Most of their key players, like playmaker Hakim Ziyech, fullback Noussair Mazraoui, and midfielder Sofyan Amrabat, were born in the Netherlands. Achraf Hakimi was born in Spain and joined Real Madrid’s youth system when he was six years old, while goalkeeper Yassine Bounou is of Canadian descent. Captain Romain Saiss, like winger Sofiane Boufal, was born in France.
As many as 16 of Morocco’s 26-man squad were born or raised in another country. Head coach Walid Regragui was born in Paris before captaining Morocco’s national team and later taking over as coach. Turning to the diaspora is not unique to Morocco, as over 100 players in this World Cup represent countries other than their own. The magnitude of Morocco’s success, on the other hand, adds to the significance of this trend.
Moroccan football made history in 1986 when it became the first African team to reach the World Cup knockout stages. That was a triumph based on Moroccan – and, by extension, African – identity. The current side’s success feels like a modern-day representation of that identity. A story about the dizzying second-generation immigrant experience, as national identities, which are so specific to a person’s cultural experiences and upbringing, blur during the World Cup.