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Rabat – Following their historic feat at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Morocco’s national football team won the award for the best national team in Africa at the CAF Awards 2023 taking place on Monday in Marrakech.
“This is just the start, we will eventually win the World Cup,” President of Morocco’s Royal Football Federation Faouzi Lekjaa said in his acceptance speech.
The Atlas Lions became the first African and Arab country to ever reach the semi-final of the World Cup in 2022.
Their outstanding performance captured the attention of audiences in Morocco and all around the world. On their journey to the semi-finals, the team knocked out a number of heavy-weight teams, including Belgium, Portugal, and Spain.
The team started the tournament on a strong note, qualifying for the round of 16 on top of Group F after defeating Belgium and Canada, and drawing with Croatia.
Their performance stole international headlines, with commentators everywhere lauding the team’s discipline and talent in its pursuit of a series of victories against heavy-weight opponents.
While they fell short of reaching the final stage of the tournament, the team has raised hopes and proved that Morocco has a fair shot at competing for the title next time in 2026, as Morocco’s Coach Walid Regragui pointed out after the semi-final match against France.
“This World Cup, Morocco’s World Cup, will be remembered, instead, as a beginning,” wrote the New York Times.
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