Euro 2024: Why Morocco's diaspora footballers are choosing their motherland

Read through the squad lists for the teams participating in the ongoing Euro 2024, and you may well be struck by the diversity in teams, particularly those in Western Europe, a reflection of patterns of migration to these countries.

But look a little closer at the Dutch and Belgian teams, and you might notice one group of people, the largest and a long-established immigrant community in both countries, is missing - Moroccans.

As the 2022 World Cup showed us, Moroccan diaspora footballing talent in Europe is far from lacking. Many of the best and brightest players are choosing to switch from the national teams of the countries they were born and/or raised, to Morocco, in an exodus that is showing no sign of slowing down.

Why do these players choose to leave?

'1-0 behind'

Moroccans are present throughout Dutch and Belgian football – their academies, the national youth teams, and the leagues. Some 10 percent of players in the Dutch premier league are of Moroccan descent, a percentage pretty much proportional to the Moroccan population in that country.

In the past few months alone, several young Belgian-Moroccan and Dutch-Moroccan players have pledged allegiance to the Moroccan national teams, among them Sohaib Darwish, a Dutch-Moroccan star of Morocco’s under-23s team, Adnan al-Boujoufi, who had been playing for the Dutch under-15s, and 13-year-old Belgian-Moroccan wunderkind Ilyes Bennane.

Earlier this year, 24-year-old Brahim Diaz, who is half-Spanish and has played more than 20 times for Spain’s national youth teams, decided to play for the Atlas Lions, reportedly after feeling snubbed by Spain. It was a coup for the Moroccan football federation, which had reportedly been trying to poach him for years.

"Players of Moroccan descent coming through the Dutch, Belgian, and other European systems say that they have been held to higher standards than their white counterparts"

Players of Moroccan descent coming through the Dutch, Belgian, and other European systems say that they have been held to higher standards than their white counterparts.

Hakim Ziyech, one of the stars of Morocco’s historic run to the World Cup semi-finals two years ago, was one of the earliest diaspora coups for the Moroccan football federation, choosing in 2015 to play for the Atlas Lions. 

He said in an interview with a Dutch magazine of his experience of the Dutch football system: "If you make any small mistake here, knowing that you are of Moroccan origin, you are the victim of exaggerated criticism, unlike the ethnic Dutch who have a greater margin of error". 

Those involved in scouting and selection for the Belgian and Dutch teams say that there are lots of factors involved in player selection for the national teams, some of them down to physique.

Khalid Zimbi, a scout for the Belgian youth teams, told Belgian broadcaster RTBF that players of Moroccan descent are often slighted because they tend to be “smaller, thinner, more technical, they have a less imposing physique” that coaches do not favour when they are building a team.

Because of this, “many players think there is a ‘football xenophobia’ for this type of build – so as soon as they have a way out, the possibility of representing another country, they make this choice”.

Dutch sports journalists Nordin Ghouddani and Thomas Rijsman looked at the relationship between footballers of Moroccan descent and Dutch football in their book Moroccan Pride, published in 2020. They interviewed two dozen Dutch-Moroccans tied to Dutch football about their experiences 

“The trend was that as a Moroccan you were already 1-0 behind, especially in the youth academy… you have to be three times better than your competitor, otherwise you won't play,” Ghouddani, who is himself Dutch-Moroccan, told local media when the book was published.

“What we experience in society, Moroccans also experience in the football world," he said.

If this is the case, the situation is bleak. In the Netherlands, Moroccans have been a prime target of anti-immigrant rhetoric. Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) infamously called Moroccan migrants “scum” and pledged to ban Muslim migration to the Netherlands if elected.

In a reflection of Dutch society’s shift to the right, the PVV came out on top in the general election last year and is now part of a four-party coalition running the country. In this month’s European Parliament elections, the PVV came out as the largest single party.

Though the far-right Vlaams Belang party did not emerge victorious in Belgium (despite some polls predicting that they would), anti-Moroccan sentiment is rife in the country. In both countries, Moroccans have long suffered from employment discrimination and higher rates of racial profiling and police brutality than their white counterparts – all of which impact their sense of pride in or belonging to these countries.

Meanwhile, diaspora Moroccans watch the ascendancy of the Atlas Lions - a team for which they are courted and are, broadly speaking, welcomed into. Unlike players with ties to just one country, they do not need to beat off stiff competition or otherwise face the prospect of no international career.

"Unlike some other diasporas, the homeland is not some distant ideal for Moroccans in Europe"

Morocco pulls at the heartstrings

Unlike some other diasporas, the homeland is not some distant ideal for Moroccans in Europe. Almost two-thirds of Moroccans in Europe aged 18-35 travel to the country every year, often to visit immediate or extended family. 

Dutch-Moroccan midfielder Sofyan Amrabat, who made the switch to representing the Atlas Lions in 2017, said of his affinity for Morocco: "My parents are Moroccan and my grandparents are Moroccan. Every time I go there I can't describe the feeling inside me in words, it's my home. The Netherlands is also my home, but Morocco is special”.

The Moroccan Football Federation has been able to capitalise on this attachment to family and homeland. Speaking to Dutch media, former Netherlands coach Pim Verbeek said he had learned from his Dutch-Moroccan peers that “the family plays an important role in the player's decision. And not only in the Netherlands. The voice of the family members in Morocco counts just as much".

A robust network of agents for the Moroccan football federation has been able to pinch young Moroccan talent from across Europe, meeting with family as well as the players themselves.

"The players are approached very early in order to attract them to the Moroccan side,” a youth coach in Belgium who had scouted for Morocco for almost a decade told Reuters. “We never force things, it's an honest discussion with the player and his family.”

This network of agents has come as part of a revolutionising of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, largely overseen by Fouzi Lekjaa, who became its president in 2014.

After the Moroccan national team hit a low point in the late 1990s, faring badly or simply not featuring at all at international tournaments, the kingdom invested heavily in its footballing infrastructure.

The Mohammed VI Football Academy in Salé, christened by the king in 2009, has already been able to produce homegrown, world-class talent, including Azzeddine Ounahi.

The coaching staff for the Moroccan teams has also increasingly become Moroccan or diaspora Moroccan, including current men’s senior team manager Walid Regragui, who was born in France.

"For a player prized by both Morocco and a European team, a timed tug of war sometimes ensues, with coaches and agents from both countries meeting with the player and their family multiple times to convince them to stay put or to switch sides"

Tug of war

National football associations need to move early with players of dual nationality because of FIFA’s eligibility rules. Put in overly simple terms, a player can switch allegiance if they have played in no more than three competitive senior games before the age of 21, and if they hold the nationality of their new association at the time of their first official appearance for their first national team.

So, for a player prized by both Morocco and a European team, a timed tug of war sometimes ensues, with coaches and agents from both countries meeting with the player and their family multiple times to convince them to stay put or to switch sides.

Though the Dutch and Belgian teams are still strong even without Moroccan representation, the poaching of Moroccan players whose talents have been honed at Dutch and Belgian football academies has left some major football figures in these countries fuming.

As Dutch-Moroccan footballer Mohamed Ihattaren mulled over which of the two sides to pick in 2019, former Netherlands international Ruud Gullit said that the Dutch football federation should consider “not training these players for someone else” or selecting players of Moroccan descent for youth teams. 

After Ziyech made the decision to play for Morocco, Marco van Basten, then assistant coach for the Dutch national team, publicly blasted his decision. In comments he later walked back, van Basten said: “How stupid can you be to choose Morocco when you can qualify for the Dutch national team?” 

Frustration over the process has also brewed on the Moroccan side, with representatives from the Moroccan football federation and even relatives of these players complaining that once diaspora players have chosen to switch allegiance to Morocco, the Dutch and Belgian football federations apply undue pressure on players to change their minds.

Who dual national players choose to play for is up to the players themselves, a spokesperson for the Dutch Football Association told The New Arab.

“Players with dual nationalities are of course free to choose, and it is a personal decision for them. In the past we have seen players deciding to play for Holland or for another country and we always respect their decision,” spokesperson Jaap Paulsen said.

“The way players are trained or developed in Holland has nothing to do with that.”

In what appears to be an attempt to better retain players of Moroccan descent, the Dutch team has been hiring more Moroccans for its youth coaching staff. Among them is Adil Ramzi, hired to head the Netherlands’ under-18s team. Ramzi played for the Morocco national team and spent several years as a coach at Dutch team PSV Eindhoven.

Paulsen said the Dutch football federation was working to combat racism in football, pointing to an extensive anti-racism program. “Excluding people and discrimination are the opposite of what football stands for,” he told The New Arab.

Morocco’s star looks set to continue to rise in the footballing world and to gain lustre for players in the diaspora. The country is gearing up to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, and to co-host the 2030 World Cup with football heavyweights Spain and Portugal.

As it continues to reap the rewards of nurturing the talent of footballers born and raised in the country, the RMFF could well decide to ease up on its recruitment of players in the diaspora.

This looks unlikely to happen anytime soon though. The successful scouting of Moroccans in Europe is “oxygen” to the RMFF’s current approach, Chris van Puyvelde, the federation’s technical director, who is, somewhat ironically,  a Belgian, told Dutch media.

"There is enormous potential."

Shahla Omar is a freelance journalist based in London. She was previously a staff journalist and news editor at The New Arab.

Follow her on X: @shahlasomar