Kylian Mbappe against Yassine Bounou. Their paths don’t cross at clubs and when PSG did meet Sevilla in a friendly last year, Mbappe didn’t play. And since France and Morocco, coloniser and colonised; defending champions against wannabes, haven’t met after 2007, Saturday’s World Cup semi-final will be the first time speed and smile will be on opposing sides.
Mbappe, who will turn 24 next Tuesday, is football’s new king. The era of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is almost over; all the cryotherapy in the world can’t keep age from catching up eventually. Mbappe’s speed and skill have singed Australia, Denmark and Poland here showing that if anything he has got better than the teenager in Russia who became the first since Pele to score in a World Cup final before he was 20.
With more goals than Pele before he turned 24, Mbappe’s anointment can happen on Sunday though some would say it already has given how he spurned Real Madrid to stay on at a club owned by people from Qatar.
But before that, they have to break Morocco. Something no team has done yet as the North African nation made history for their continent. Talk to Walid Regragui anytime and the Morocco coach will point out how difficult the road to semi-final has been. It is hard to dispute his claim: Morocco beat Belgium, Canada – the top team from North America in the qualifiers – Spain and Portugal, and drew 0-0 against Croatia.
“European countries are used to winning the World Cup and we have played top sides, we have not had an easy run. Anyone playing us is going to be afraid of us now,” Regragui, 47, has said.
{{/usCountry}}“European countries are used to winning the World Cup and we have played top sides, we have not had an easy run. Anyone playing us is going to be afraid of us now,” Regragui, 47, has said.
{{/usCountry}}Morocco have come this far without conceding a goal because of Bounou. Nothing, not even a barrage of attacks from Spain and Portugal, has clouded his essentially sunny disposition. Bounou, 31, is the best goalkeeper of the 2021-22 La Liga season. In Doha, his cage has been rattled but not breached. Can Mbappe do that? Can Antoine Griezmann, who has been at the heart of France’s creative efforts, help them find a way?
Try telling Regragui that defending champions France will be their toughest test and he will reply that Morocco have no plans of stopping having come this far. “Perhaps I am mad,” he said on Friday. “I was asked if we can win the World Cup and I said, ‘Why not? We can dream, it doesn’t cost you anything to have dreams,” he has said.
By getting players’ families over, Morocco midfielder Soufiane Boufal danced with his mother after they stunned Portugal in the quarter-final, by getting diaspora stars to blend with those born in Morocco – this squad has 14 players born outside – Regragui has forged a unit for whom nothing is impossible. So what if they are ranked 22nd in the world and France 4th?
That they are playing France adds to the intensity of this being a World Cup semi-final. Regragui has lived in the Paris suburb of Corbeil Essones and earned his coaching badges in Europe. Boufal and skipper Romain Sais – his defying a hamstring injury to continue against Spain and start the quarter-final typified the grit intrinsic to Morocco’s fairytale run – too were born in France. It will be a great day for those with dual nationalities in Paris, said Regragui.
Regragui said some 20,000 Moroccans were expected for the semi-finals. “The World Cup is the best shop window and the world has now known about Morocco’s fans. They are as passionate as Argentina and Brazil fans. They are crazy guys, we love them. I am very happy that the World Cup has given a picture of Morocco.”
It’s a picture that has had broad brushstrokes of family relations, Morocco’s culture of passionate supporters, said Regragui. “But most importantly, we want to show the world our football.”
Against top European nations, Morocco, like South Korea in 2002, have done that. Now, in a competition also called the Arab World Cup, Morocco need to do that against a country that ruled them from 1912 to 1956. For the Arab world, for Africa, for their country and for themselves.
It is a clash of unequals but the World Cup is full of surprise stories. USA- England 1950, North Korea-Italy 1966, Cameroon-Argentina 1990, Senegal-France 2002 are some. Will there be one more on Wednesday?