BarcelonaWhen he was 17 years old, Achraf Hakimi (Getafe, 1998) took part in training sessions with the Spanish under-19 team alongside Basque goalkeeper Unai Simón. They are now rivals in the round of 16 of the World Cup. Simón with Spain and Hakimi with Morocco. Despite the fact that the Spanish Federation wanted the current PSG full-back to go international with them, Hakimi preferred to play for the team from his parents’ homeland. “I feel great love for Spain, but, first of all, I feel for Morocco,” the player explained to Ràdio Marca a few days ago. Hakimi warns that “you have to respect this Moroccan team”, but also that he would have preferred another opponent. “Having so many friends in Spain, I would prefer not to meet at eight.”
The round of 16 match between Spain and Morocco (Tuesday, 4 p.m.) pits two states that are both very close and very far away. Two states linked by a complicated relationship in which the fight for territory or immigration is mixed. The match is a novelty for Spanish football, which until now was not used to facing a rival with players born in Spanish territory. “In France, this phenomenon has been happening for a long time. In England, Belgium or the Netherlands, too. A match in which a national team faces an opponent where there are players who were born in your territory, but play for the country of their ancestors,” says French journalist Mickael Correia. 14 of Morocco’s 26 players were born in Europe. Ez Abde, owned by Barça and loaned to Osasuna, was born in Morocco but raised in Elche. And now he is also playing in Morocco against a Spanish team full of Barça players. In this World Cup, France lost to Tunisia, a team that has a lot of players born in France. In the Swiss national team, 70% of the team has roots far from its territory and, in fact, striker Embolo scored a goal for the team in the land of his birth, Cameroon. In previous World Cups, France had played against Senegal with a lot of Senegalese born in France. And England had faced Trinidad and Tobago in 2006, with half a UK-born Caribbean side. “Those who accuse the players of preferring to play with the team of the land of their parents are usually those who also do not look favorably on immigrants. It is demanded of someone who has left his land allegiance to the new one, but the assimilation processes are not fast. You don’t stop feeling where you were born after living in one place for 10 years,” adds Correia, who has studied this phenomenon in France, a team that in 2016 lost the final of the Eurocup at home, in Paris, against Portugal, where a player born in Paris who preferred to play for Portugal played, Guerreiro.
Concern for possible incidents
About 775,000 Moroccans officially live in Spain, and this makes the party a cause for concern for possible incidents. In different towns with a large presence of Moroccan communities, Morocco fans took to the streets to celebrate the success of their team, which has qualified for the round of 16 of the World Cup for the second time in its history. There were no significant incidents, unlike what had happened a few days earlier in Brussels, when Moroccan fans rioted to celebrate the victory over Belgium. In Madrid, far-right groups that support Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid have posted messages on the networks encouraging the population to join them to “defend Spain and protect the streets from acts of vandalism by Moroccans” after of this Tuesday’s match, while thousands of racist messages against Arabs appear on social networks. The religious leaders of the Muslim communities in areas such as Almeria have asked their compatriots to avoid excess before and after the match. “The principles of Islam are those of respect. 20% of our community has Spanish nationality. We invite everyone to enjoy the show by staying away from behavior that could alter coexistence.” Politicians from parties such as Vox used the images of Moroccan celebrations to criticize state migration policies.
A coach from Ceuta
At the Medina Azahara cafe in Barcelona’s Raval, customers agree that they would have preferred to avoid the match. They would have liked to face another team in the round of 16, not Spain. “I’ve been with both teams for many years. I’m going with Morocco, but I don’t want Spain to lose,” says Youseff, who has been in Barcelona for 20 years after arriving from a village in the interior of Tangier Anass, his friend, answers him, half laughing: “I’m only cheering for Morocco and Barça, this match will be like a derby”. The ones who are most clear that they are with Morocco are the young people. They have been in Europe for a while, have not yet created the same ties to their new home as those of a previous generation, who admit to being a little divided in their hearts, although they choose Morocco for different reasons. “Spain has won a World Cup and has the best teams in the world. I prefer a victory for Morocco to bring joy to my people,” explains Rachid. Many will go to watch the match live at the Alrouche bar in the Maremàgnum area, one of the meeting points for Morocco fans in Barcelona. After the last triumph, many young people gathered in Plaça Catalunya to celebrate the success of the team led by Walid Regragui, the selector. A man born near Paris, but who spent the summers in Ceuta, where he had his roots, which is why he already spoke a little Arabic, French and Spanish. “I have Spanish friends and I played in Spain. It’s a country I love,” he declared. His mother was born in the neighborhood of El Príncipe de Ceuta, one of the two cities that the Moroccan government considers occupied, since they have been part of the Spanish state for 500 years, along with Melilla. Regragui’s childhood was spent playing soccer in the center of Ceuta and crossing the border on foot to see his relatives in Castillejos, the first town in Morocco on the other side of the border. Regragui is still a good summary of the relations between two lands, always united by history.
The former Racing de Santander player was benched just months before the World Cup, when Bosnian manager Vahid Halilhodzic packed his bags after falling out with the team’s big star, Hakim Ziyech. Born in the Netherlands and international with that country in lower categories, the Ajax-trained player preferred to play for Morocco. This led to him being attacked by figures such as Marco Van Basten, who claimed: “You have to be stupid to play for Morocco when you can play for the Netherlands.” Ziyech replied that he was doing it out of respect for the sacrifice made by his parents. Regragui leads a selection of defensive profile full of players who were born in Europe, but also some born in Morocco and emerged from the modern Mohammed VI Academy, where many Spanish coaches have passed through. In this round trip, some Spaniards have also made the trip to Morocco to improve the level of this team, such as the Catalan Sergio Piernas, under-21 coach, who defined the local players in an interview stating: “There he has the technique of the player born in Europe who has gone through grassroots football at clubs like Ajax or Barça, and the player born in Africa, with great physical ability and individual talent. It’s a good mix.” Until now, Morocco had only reached the round of 16 of the World Cup once, in 1986. Now they dream of reaching the quarter-finals by defeating Spain. Yassine Bounou, the Sevilla goalkeeper who was at Girona, admits that he sees the match as “a derby”, as the two teams know each other. “We have friends in the Spanish team, we play there… They are special matches,” he adds.
Political tension
Before the duel, the Moroccan portal Rue 20 these days he asked for “respect” from the Spanish press and fans, after seeing an avalanche of messages on social networks where, for example, they jokingly talked about a possible arbitration against Spain associating Morocco with thieves. Rue 20 he also wondered why there is so much talk about the birthplace of Moroccan players and not those of Spain, since some of Luis Enrique’s disciples have roots in other continents, such as Ansu Fati, Alejandro Balde or Nico Williams. “Now that we are in a good period of relations between the two countries, it is necessary to enjoy the match with sportsmanship”, added this means of communication related to the government of Rabat. The party comes after months of negotiations between the two governments on various issues.
At the beginning of 2022, Madrid decided to host the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, in a Logronyo hospital when he was ill with covid. Morocco protested, as the Polisario Front defends the independence of Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco controls and considers its own. One of the weapons used by the government in Rabat to pressure Spain was to look the other way when groups of sub-Saharan immigrants or young Moroccans tried to enter the Spanish state through the Ceuta border. Migratory pressure would be, precisely, one of the keys that led the government of Pedro Sánchez to make a historic turn in Spain’s foreign policy: it went on to accept Morocco’s proposal according to which the Western Sahara would be part of this state, but enjoying autonomy. Madrid, in exchange for getting Morocco to control its borders, turned its back on the Saharawis. And all amid accusations against the two governments of using violence at the borders of Ceuta and Melilla against immigrants, with hundreds of fatalities.
The good relationship between Morocco and Spain, two countries that in the past have had moments of tension such as the Perejil Island crisis in 2002, has been built on the basis of looking the other way when it comes to rights of immigrants or the Saharawis. A complicated relationship, as it will be to experience the match for the Moroccans who have been living in Spain for decades, many of them with a divided heart. Munir El-Haddadi, former Barça player who is not in the World Cup, got to play with both national teams, being the son of a Moroccan and a Spanish mother. Many fans, like many players, would have preferred this match, should it occur, to be later on.
