Rabat - Footballer Noussair Mazraoui is torn between representing Morocco or the Netherlands.
Rabat – Footballer Noussair Mazraoui is torn between representing Morocco or the Netherlands.
Courted by both the Moroccan and the Dutch team, the Dutch-Moroccan football player will have to chose soon which colors he wants to wear.
The 20-year-old was called by Herve Renard before the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but he was not selected for the team.
Rumored to also be on the French coach’s list of players for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) in Cameroon, the Ajax Amsterdam player is still uncertain about his international future. The Netherlands are similarly trying to pitch Mazraoui the idea to join their national team.
According to De Telegraaf, the Dutch team’s manager, Ronald Koeman, is doing his best to convince the Ajax right-back to choose the Oranjes over the Atlas Lions, speaking with him last Thursday.
“Nico-Jan Hoogma [technical director], Mazraoui, his agent and I had a good talk, the four of us. We have indicated what we want and how we see it for us with him. That in the future he will be a serious option for the right back position,” he said.
“One of these days he has to make a choice, because he is probably being called for Morocco. But I do not think a player comes to a conversation and listens to our story if he has already made the choice for Morocco,” he added.
However, the footballer has already participated in an internship with the Atlas Lions during his youth, which may increase the chance he will join the Moroccan team.
If the 20-year-old sensation agrees to play with the Atlas Lions, he may face the anger of the Dutch football world just like his Ajax teammate Hakim Ziyech, who was called “stupid” by Dutch football player Marco Van Basten for wearing Morocco’s colors. The 25-year-old midfielder was also considered a traitor for betraying his birthplace while honoring his parents’ homeland.
