Rabat - Contrary to media reports, Munir El Haddani will not be joining the Moroccan national football, FIFA announced Friday.
Rabat – Contrary to media reports, Munir El Haddani will not be joining the Moroccan national football, FIFA announced Friday.
Several news outlets reported Thursday that Munir El Haddadi had been approved by FIFA to suit up for the Moroccan national team. On Friday, a FIFA spokesman has come out to deny that report.
FIFA have pointed to their own rulebook to explain why Munir would find it difficult to change national teams at this stage of his career. Players are allowed to changed national teams, but not if they have appeared on the senior team in an actual competitive match.
Regulatiosn of the international Football’s governing body state that “Any player who has already participated in a match (either in full or in part) in an official competition of any category or any type of football for one association may not play an international match for a representative team of another association.”
It has long been speculated that Munir was fast-tracked through the ranks of the Spanish national team in order to make him ineligible to represent Morocco. To the dismay of the Kingdom, this tactic seems to have worked.
In 2014 Munir was called up by former Spain coach Vicente del Bosque to play against Macedonia.
Formerly a rising star, El Hadadi’s progress slowed down in the last two seasons, prompting Barcelona to loan him to Valencia. Reports say the Catalan club is ready to sell him to other clubs outside Spain.
The Dutch giant Ajax and the Zenit St Ptersburg in Russia reportedly expressed interest in the Spanish Moroccan striker.
