Rabat – Mohamed Makrouf, the official spokesperson for the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), has indicated that Real Madrid is pushing attacking midfielder Brahim Diaz to turn down an offer to play with Morocco’s national football team at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
In recent comments to Tunisia’s Radio IFM, the Moroccan official said that Ibrahim Diaz, a Spanish-Moroccan international football player, has faced pressure from Spanish Club Real Madrid to not join Morocco at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
“Ibrahim Diaz wants to play for the Moroccan national team in the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations,” Makrouf said on the radio show, according to converging news reports. “But he is under pressure from the management of Real Madrid, which wants to keep all its players in January.”
He added that there is constant communication between Diaz and Walid Regragui, the coach of Morocco’s national football team, who understands the player’s situation and his club’s position.
In 2018, the Moroccan-Spanish attacking midfielder rejected a call from then Moroccan coach Herve Renard to play with the Atlas Lions at the World Cup in Russia.
In February of this year, however, reports indicated that Morocco’s head coach Walid Regragui had met with Diaz to try and convince him to join the Atlas Lions.
“The head coach of Morocco’s national team, Walid Regragui, will meet with AC Milan player Ibrahim Diaz to convince him to join the Moroccan squad,” beIN Sports said back then in a post on X or Twitter.
With that report coming while Diaz was on loan at the Italian club AC Milan, beIN Sports also stressed Regragui and the player met in Milan on the sidelines of an AC Milan vs Tottenham Hotspurs match.
Read also: Youssef Enriquez Chooses to Play with Morocco’s National Team
At the time, however, converging reports indicated that the Moroccan-Spanish midfielder was not very receptive to Morocco’s interest in him as he was more inclined to join the Spanish national football team.
Yet following Spain’s current head coach to snub Diaz for a call-up to the Spanish team despite his recent performances at club level, many observers in Spain were prompt to caution that Spain’s repeated snubbing of the player may ultimately lead him to embrace the Moroccan Atlas Lions instead.
Brahim Diaz won’t be waiting on Spain indefinitely, a respected Spanish sports outlet reported last March, stressing: “Brahim is not willing to wait forever for a national team that does not take him into account [Spain], while the Moroccans ‘love’ him.”
