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Rabat – French sports news outlet L’Équipe recalled the personal connections between Moroccan and French football players ahead of the decisive World Cup quarterfinal on Thursday.
The French sports daily recalled that some players developed strong personal friendships with each other, whether at club level or while representing youth teams. Despite their dual nationality and despite their early training across the world, being Moroccan is not only part of their DNA but also a source of pride and a sense of attachment to their motherland.
And the story goes beyond the well-known friendship between Kylian Mbappé and Achraf Hakimi.
“The connections between French and Moroccan players extend well beyond professional football,” the report reads, noting that many players were born in France.
This makes the match between Morocco and France special, L’Équipe wrote, pointing out that Issa Diop once represented France’s youth national team.
The report particularly quoted Ludovic Batelli, who once coached the French youth team that featured Diop.
“It’s fantastic and a great source of pride. It shows just how talented that generation was. Each of them has carved out his own career…. Issa was a wonderful teammate and has steadily built his career,” he said.
Diop has established himself as a key player in Mohamed Ouahbi’s squad at the ongoing World Cup.
On Tuesday last week, Diop made headlines after bringing Morocco back into the game with a late equalizer against the Netherlands.
The equalizer gave Morocco sent the two teams to extra time and then to a penalty shootout, where Morocco prevailed thanks to the usual heroics of superstar Yassine Bounou.
Morocco’s right-back Achraf Hakimi recently commented in one of the viral posts, indicating that although he has a good relationship with Mbappé, they are not friends on the pitch.
L’Équipe also mentioned that beyond Mbappé and Hakimi, Dembélé and Diop “still exchange messages from time to time.”
The game on Thursday at 9 p.m. is not just another World Cup match. It is one of the most decisive and anticipated matches of the tournament, as fans are eagerly awaiting to see whether the Atlas Lions can take revenge after Les Bleus ended the national team’s historic World Cup journey in Qatar 2022.
France defeated Morocco in the 2022 semifinals to secure a spot in the final, but it was Argentina that claimed the title under Messi’s leadership.
Now all eyes are on the Atlas Lions and whether they will defy the predictions that largely favor France over Morocco in tomorrow’s game.
Stay tuned!
