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Rabat – Moroccan-Belgian football player Ilias Chair has said that playing for the Atlas Lions in the 2022 World Cup was “a dream” and an “unforgettable experience” in his career.
In an interview with Tribal Football, the Queens Park Rangers (QPR) attacker described the transition from the World Cup tournament back to QRP as “very difficult, as the euphoria was so high and then you’re returning back to work.”
Talking about the build-up to the World Cup, Chair said: “It was important that we all believed we could be champions, we all believed what we could achieve as a country and as a squad, and we made it click.”
In the beginning, he said, Morocco’s Atlas Lions had doubts as a team but after their first game against Croatia “all the doubts just went.”
For the QPR player, the end result which saw Morocco finish in fourth place was a “bitter-sweet ending.”
The Atlas Lions wanted to “achieve a little bit more than what they had done already” Chair said. “But we did do something that had never been done before,” he added, referring to the Moroccan team becoming the first Arab and African side to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Chair has been criticized lately as some observers maintain he is underperforming compared to the standards he set when he played for West London.
Football League World has quoted former England footballer Carlton Palmer as saying of the Moroccan player: “He is too inconsistent at the moment.” Palmer added that Chair is a “talented player but it’s always on his say.”
The 25-year old player was born in Antwerp, Belgium, but holds Moroccan citizenship.
In the player’s most recent Instagram post, he celebrated Ramadan with a picture of him praying. “Let’s have a peaceful Ramadan. May Allah show us the right path and answer our prayers,” the caption reads.
