Morocco World News
Morocco World News
New York, September 19, 2012
Moroccan Football Federation has finally decided to listen to the calls of the Moroccans regarding the replacement of the Belgian coach Eric Gerets.
According to Badou Zaki’s twitter account, the icon of Moroccan football has been appointed on Wednesday as the new coach of the Atlas Lions. “I am officially the coach of the national team”, reads the tweet posted on Zaki’s account.
The same information has been confirmed by the Eurosport Arabic and El Botola.com.
Since the disgraceful elimination of Morocco from the African Cup of Nations, an overwhelming majority of Moroccans called on the Moroccan Federation of Football to entrust Badou Zaki, former goalkeeper and coach of the Atlas Lions, with the task of putting together a more competitive national team.
Since Eric Gerets took over as coach of the national team in July 2010, the same phrase was repeated by the public in the stadiums during any bad performance, “Achaab Yourid Badou Zaki (People want Bado Zaki).
Since Morocco won its only continental cup in 1976, Badou Zaki was the only coach to lead Morocco’s national team to the final of the African Cup of Nations in 2004, which it lost to Tunisia.
A survey conducted by Radio Mars on Sunday showed that the majority of Moroccans are hopeful to see Zaki lead the national team.
Besides having led the national team to achieve its best performance since 1976, Zaki is also considered the greatest goal-keeper in Morocco’s history.
In the 1986 World Cup played in Mexico, he played a pivotal role in qualifying the Moroccan team to the second round.
It was the first time in the history of the World Cup that an African and Arab country qualified to the second round of this international competition.
