his country against the land where he was born

The calendar also includes this Thursday’s match between Morocco and Canada, on the third and last day of the group stage. Morocco, second in Group F, will play in the round of 16 for the second time in its history and for the first time since 1986 if it collects a point against the host, Canada. “It will be a very special match, because we lived there for a while, in Canada. I was very young, but my parents have a lot of memories,” says Bono, born in 1991 in Montreal. Morocco is the World Cup team with the most players born outside the country’s borders: 14 out of 26, with four children from Holland, three from Belgium and France, two from Spain, one from Italy and one from Canada . “We are united by our parents, a culture and the goal of wanting to represent both things in the best possible way,” he says. Dropped in the victory against Belgium (2-0) due to a last-minute indisposition, now he should return to the eleven.

“I remember little of my childhood in Canada, almost nothing, and I want to go back there. Because it’s a special place for me, a little part of me. And if they weren’t in our group I would go with them. For me, my son is also Canadian. It’s a place I haven’t forgotten,” he continues. He explains that he has received many offers to play in Canadian MLS clubs. And that when he was little, his father, Mehmed, was a physics professor at the university, and his mother, Malica, worked in a hair salon. They returned to Casablanca when he was three years old, after almost a decade in Canadian soil: “My mother was not quite adjusting. Canada and Morocco are two very different worlds. Canada is work and towards home, work and home. And it is difficult for a Moroccan to live such a life. His head is not programmed to live such a life.” He says this because he is more used to social life: “In the end a Moroccan who has the possibility to live more or less well and to have a life security in Morocco, I’m not saying that you need to be rich, he would live in Morocco, not in Canada , because it has a little more of everything. It’s a life more or less like in Spain, where people enjoy a little and work a little. But, of course, if you’re very needy you’ll go live in Canada. If you have to live in Morocco without a job it’s normal for you to leave for a place where you can work.”

Bono grew up on the streets of downtown Casablanca. He discovered football on the ramp of a car park: below the goal were some rubbish bins and above it was drawn on the wall: “Below you could only kick with the inside. Above, whatever you wanted”. His father continued to work as a teacher: “In Morocco a university professor is not like in Canada. Intellectual people and people who have studied a lot are not the rich people. The rich make money from somewhere else that we don’t know. I grew up very happy, because I didn’t have luxuries, but I didn’t lack anything.” “My mother rented a place to have a hair salon. Then she changed and started working in women’s clothing. She was one of the first to make the ready to wear in Casablanca. When the clothes from the Chinese started arriving, the business went down a lot and he set up a food place. He continues to work there, in the same premises, on the same street. It’s been a hairdressing, clothing and food store,” he recounts, in a low, leisurely tone. “When I started playing soccer and I was able to earn money, I bought the building so that I could be calm and no one could take out of your premises,” he says.

His parents live on the same premises, on the third floor, and his brother lives on the sidewalk in front, on the floor where he saw his first World Cup (1998). “I remember one day I had training at two or three in the afternoon and when I got home Brazil and Scotland were playing. And at night I think Morocco and Norway were playing. That day Brazil won 2-1. The word Brazil it was scary at that time, it was very scary,” points out Bono, a lover of looking back. Wikipedia proves him right.

The first shirts

During those years, the first football shirts also arrived: Argentina’s from the 1998 World Cup, one from Real Sociedad – “for me it was just a shirt with a shield, because I was very young and I still didn’t know anything about Real”, he says, and one from Barça. “At that time, Valencia was very good and I asked my uncle from Zaragoza if he could bring me the goalkeeper’s shirt. The one I wanted, from Cañizares or Palop. He said yes. But when I opened it, it was a Barça’s Kappa shirt, orange, player’s and without a name,” he adds, reliving that disappointment. “Barça already played with Nike, so I was already old. But I wore it for a long time anyway, to play for Casablanca,” he says with a laugh. He also had a Madrid T-shirt, with Teka advertising and the name of Iker Casillas.

Today, many children wear their name on their backs. Or that of Achraf Hakimi (PSG) or Hakim Ziyech (Chelsea). “When I came to Spain it was really because of the illusion of saying that it can be done and of saying that someone from Morocco can come here and be important. I am very encouraged to be able to raise my flag and defend my culture in one place where very few times have been possible. Making things change excites me more than anything else,” he admits proudly and happily. He moves his hands when he talks: he says they look like fishmongers, with so many cuts. “You have to enjoy and you have to be grateful. Because now I am the protagonist of things that I saw and dreamed of as a child. You have to be grateful. To life, to destiny, to God. Each one who believes, but you have to be grateful,” emphasizes Bono, always down to earth: “I always try to come back to reality. And think that I should be happy because honestly I’m privileged.”