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On Tuesday this week, the Moroccan national football team advanced to the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup following a pulsating 120-minute game against Spain, one of the tournament’s early favorites.
Players such the fast and creative Achraf Hakimi, the gifted and ingenious Hakim Ziyech, the versatile and reassuring Sofyan Amrabat, as well as the commanding and indomitable Bounou have been the faces of the impressive Moroccan team. But the Atlas Lions’ Qatari success story is also courtesy of the equally critical contribution of a number of unsung heroes.
One such hero has been Noussair Mazraoui, whose tactical discipline and versatile skill set make him one of the key players of the Moroccan squad.
Spending 15 years at Ajax Amsterdam, he stood out with his proactive defending techniques, intelligent kicks and deftness on the ball.
Born in the Dutch city of Leiderdorp to Moroccan parents, Noussair started playing football in the comfort of his hometown before signing up for the local club AVV Alphen at only 4 years old.
Inspired by the French football icon Zinedine Zidane, Noussair continued playing the ball and dreaming of one day playing at the elite stage. Moving to Alphense Boys, where he only played for a year before getting recruited by the youth academy of Ajax.
He aspired to be a lawyer
Despite his promising footballing skills, Noussair was a hardworking student at school and had a goal of becoming a lawyer. He studied languages such as English and German. At the age of seventeen, while still pursuing football, he began studying law at university with the aim of securing his diploma.
Rough beginnings, doubts
As Mazraoui spent a lot of time on the bench, he thought he had little chance of making Ajax Amsterdam’s first team and was thrown into a sea of doubt and uncertainty.
“Sometimes they called me, sometimes they didn’t call me. It was hard to commute from Alphen Aan de Rijn to Amsterdam and not make any entry,” he said in an interview in 2018. “I’ve seen a lot of people get fired. I felt at one point put aside by the club. I wondered a lot about why I wasn’t playing. Did I suck during practice? I think a lot of players have gone through this period.”
In those formative years, added the Bayern Munich player, there were times when he thought about letting go of his football dreams and focusing instead on his other passion: education.
Luckily, he was motivated by Marcel Keizer, who was then the coach of the Ajax youth team, to continue pursuing football and not be discouraged.
The rise
Mazraoui’s rise to the top was a display of methodological growth and unwavering persistence.
Despite failing to stand out in his games with the Ajax juniors, Erik Ten Hag, the coach of the senior team, decided to give Noussair a chance. The player made his senior debut on February 4, 2018, coming on as a substitute in a 3-1 win against NAC Breda.
Noussair ended the 2017-18 campaign with eight Dutch top-flight appearances as a central midfielder.
Read also: World Cup: Morocco Has Become Neutrals’ Darling
During his time with Ajax, the right-back made a total of 137 outstanding appearances and scored 10 goals. Mazraoui has also scored twice in 12 appearances for the Moroccan lions.
In May 2022, FC Bayern completed the signing of Mazraoui from Ajax. The 25-year-old moved to the German club, signing a four-year contract.
Following the transfer, Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn said: “Noussair Mazraoui is the next building block as we continue to strengthen our team in a targeted way. We have big aims again for the new season, and players like Noussair Mazraoui increase our options. We’re also looking forward to taking on the Champions League again with him and we want to celebrate a lot of successes together in the coming years.”
Friendship with Hakim Ziyech
Mazraoui shares a special friendship with his former Ajax teammate, Hakim Ziyech. In an interview with Voetbal International, he said he was buddies with the gifted playmaker and described their relationship as “brotherly.”
He explained, “We get along very well. Of course, we have the same Moroccan roots, but there is more. We feel comfortable with one another and there is a warm bond of trust. It looks like a kind of brotherhood.”
In particular, he spoke emphatically of Ziyech’s help during his years of doubts and uncertainty at Ajax.
“He helped me a lot in my beginnings,” Mazraoui insisted. With both players set to feature in Morocco’s lineup against Portugal today, the hope of Atlas Lions fans is to see the Bayern full-back and his Chelsea “buddy” be at their scintillating best to help inspire Morocco’s qualification to the semifinals of the FIFA World Cup.
