CAN 2025: Renard on Regragui & Morocco-Senegal Final

Walid Regragui was heavily criticized at the start of the CAN. Is the position of coach in Morocco, which you held for three years, sometimes heavy to bear?

HR: Yes, it’s heavy sometimes. But it’s not just complicated in Morocco. You only have to look at the criticism suffered by Didier Deschamps, who was world champion as a player and as a coach. And yet, we keep questioning it. Today, there are more media, social networks. The criticisms are multiplied by countless numbers. If I had been in Walid’s place, I wouldn’t have even talked about it. The most important thing for him is to have achieved a stratospheric 2022 World Cup by qualifying them for a semi-final. Then, of course, he had a little hole with an elimination in the 8th of the CAN but it happens. It’s never easy to digest such a performance.

Do you understand that he settles his scores a little after qualifying for the final?

HR: No, he doesn’t need to talk about it again. When you are a coach, you know where you want to go. We must ignore everything. Afterwards, it’s harder for him, he’s Moroccan, he has a lot of friends who can call him to tell him this or that. But the most important thing is to stay in your bubble. We can discuss his work as much as we want, there is nothing to say except congratulations. That’s all. He succeeded at the World Cup by falling back and countering. Four years later, he succeeded in the CAN in another system, with other intentions. He has a formidable tactical palette and adaptation to his opponents. This is a huge response for everyone who may have offered criticism. I know what it’s like, I had the chance to be Morocco coach. I only have one thing to say to him: hats off!

We remember the critics who accompanied Djamel Belmadi or even Aliou Cissé when they won the CAN with Algeria or Senegal. Is it even more difficult to be a prophet in your country?

HR: Yes, it’s very difficult. But I started a CAN with Ivory Coast in 2015 with two draws. I stayed in a bubble because it could have affected me. At the end, when I won, I said: ‘those who worked on TV sets, today, they dance on the tables’. Everyone knows better than anyone in football: this one should be played rather than that one, etc. It’s easy to talk but the most important thing is that Walid had direction. You can’t start with all your feet and win one at the end: that never happens. The Moroccans rose to a crescendo. They beat Cameroon and Nigeria. Whatever happens, it’s a success. If he wins, a statue will have to be made to Walid.

Can the fact of not having been a huge player sometimes weaken him?

HR: No, that’s the end of it. The big players have credit for two or three months and then it runs out if there are no results. No coach makes a career on his reputation as a player. There, we simply have a whole population who have been waiting for this for 50 years, it drives them crazy.

Walid Regragui, Morocco coach

Credit: Getty Images

Is it harder in Morocco than elsewhere? Are the people more demanding in the game, particularly there?

HR: ‘We win but we don’t play well’: it’s a criticism that we often hear even in France. In Morocco, there is enormous passion, but like in passionate countries like Brazil or South America in general. The more passion there is, the more excitement there is and the more difficult it is to succeed. Today, Walid is a demigod, let’s leave him alone. One day, a president said to me: ‘You know, if you were a surgeon, no one would come and give you advice during your operations because no one has the skills for that. In football, everyone thinks they have the skills…’ Walid, I know him well, I would tell him not to scatter because deep down, he no longer needs to respond to his detractors.