Portugal and Morocco will take to the pitch at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha on Saturday 10th of this month (3pm on the Portuguese mainland) for their respective World Cup quarter-final clash in Qatar, in the Arab world. , who in the Lions of Atlas has the first team to reach such a high level in 22 World Cup finals since 1930 – and the fourth time Africa has a top eight representative – the curiosity will be even greater for Walid. Regragui, a Moroccan born in France, aged 47, who in three months at the helm gave the team pragmatism, whether or not he had a degree in economics and social sciences.
“Hurricane Regragui”, as the press calls it – and it’s nice to remember – is at the helm of the “Atlas Lions” for a little more than three months, or 100 days: on August 31, the Moroccan federation is officially the successor to the Bosnian Wahid Halilhodzic, whose intransigence, including Ziyosha – striker ” Chelsea” and together with Ashraf Hakimi (PSG, the biggest stars of the national team) – in the group for Qatar ended up due to wear and tear from the confrontation with the federation, costing the former Yugoslavia international and coaching work.
It goes without saying that the level of success that Walid Regragui has achieved in Morocco is truly astounding…and himself in just three months.
He is the first African to qualify from the black continent in a World Cup quarter – so far in the three previous presences of teams from Africa in the quarters they have always had the technique and know-how. ‘ from other latitudes (and continents) at the helm: foreigners.
Walid Regragui was born in Corbeil-Essonnes, a suburb in the south of Paris – he also has French citizenship – and was a right-back who, despite carefully passing through the emblems of the first and second tiers of France and Spain – RC Paris, among others “Toulouse”, ” Ajaccio, Racing Santander, Sporting de Gijon and Grenoble – he added 45 more matches for the Atlas Lions. For the clubs he represented, with only the emblem of Corsica (Ajaccio), he celebrated the title of the 2nd French division in the 2001/02 season. For this reason, in the 2012/13 season, he was not surprised by his first invitation to become an assistant to the Moroccan technical team.
The impression remains good. And the former right-back, who professes the Muslim religion and sacredly observes Ramadan and the corresponding fast, completed training as a coach at the age of nine.
Regragui started at FUS Rabat in the 2012/13 season, but in 2020 he caught the eye with the Qatari title at Al Duhail. He returned to Morocco to lead the Wydad Athletic Club of Casablanca to a national title and African Championship this July.
But when he leaves football, the “straw” in economics and social sciences, an academic diploma, to sanctify the father’s pressure that made him never neglect his studies – for fear of losing the opportunity to stop playing football, in the youth teams of Racing de Paris. – give way.
If in Portugal Fernando Santos, with a degree in electronics and telecommunications, is at the helm of the Selection, and has been on the “other side” for eight years now, Morocco brings us a “phenomenon”, whose success in the selection of just three months of the Regragui Economics degree, is already a case study. Promise.
