Newark.- In addition to achieving a meritorious draw against Brazil, Morocco became the first national team in World Cup history to play, for about twenty-five minutes, with an eleven entirely born abroad.
The data, highlighted by the Brazilian portal Ge and other media, confirms a growing phenomenon that is also occurring in other national teams.
In total, close to 300 footballers out of a total of 1,248 represent in this World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada the colors of a national team different from that of their birthplace.
On Saturday, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, something unprecedented happened. The Atlas Lions ended up playing for about twenty-five minutes with eleven ‘foreign’ footballers on the pitch.
In the starting lineup, only Azzedine Ounahi, a Girona player, was born in the African country, specifically in Casablanca.
The rest came into the world outside its borders, although all of them are of Moroccan descent. Goalkeeper Bono was born in Montreal (Canada). Hakimi, Chadi Riad, Brahim Díaz, and Ismael Saibari did so in Spain.
Saibari, author of the goal against the Canarinha, is from Tarrasa, the same Catalan town where the Spaniard Xavi Hernández was born.
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Three others of them (Issa Diop, El Aynaoui and Bouaddi) are from France, while Mazraoui is from the Netherlands and El Khannouss from Belgium.
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The moment when eleven foreigners coincided was in the 65th minute, when Brahim and Ounahi left the field for the entry of Talbi (Belgium) and El Mourabet (France).
The Atlas Lions played with a ‘local’ footballer again near the 90th minute, when forward Soufiane Rahimi, from Casablanca, came on.
In total, 19 of the 26 footballers who make up Morocco’s squad in this World Cup were born in France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and, in the case of Bono, Canada.
“Today, the search for the diaspora is accepted and funded, without restrictions or prejudices. In African and Central American confederations, the most important position is not that of the national team coach, but that of the person in charge of convincing young people“, explained Thiago Freitas, director of operations for the agency Roc Nation Sports in Brazil, which manages the careers of hundreds of athletes.
