Football: Factbox-Soccer-Profile of Morocco team for 2023 Africa Cup of Nations

ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Factbox on Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers Morocco.

Africa Cup of Nations record:

Previous appearances in finals: (18) 1972, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021

Best performance: Winners 1976

Drawn in Group F with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zambia

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Coach: Walid Regragui

Not long after he had won the 2022 African Champions League with Wydad Casablanca, the French-born former Morocco fullback was asked to take over the Morocco team some six months before the World Cup in Qatar. There, he steered Morocco to the semi-final, a first for both an African and Arab country, and making them the favourites for the Cup of Nations title in the Ivory Coast. The 48-year-old played in both Ligue 1 and LaLiga, at Racing Santander, and with Morocco was in the team that lost the 2004 final to hosts Tunisia.

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Key player: Achraf Hakimi. Age: 25. Defender.

Still relatively young, the Spanish-born Hakimi has already paid in four major league and racked up over 100-million euros in transfer frees. He came through the ranks at Real Madrid but made his name out on loan at Borussia Dortmund before a 43-million euro move to Inter Milan and then a 60-million euro transfer to Paris St Germain two years ago. He was just 17 when he debuted for Morocco and quickly made the left back berth his own, competing at the last two World Cups and previous two editions of the Cup of Nations finals.

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FIFA world ranking December 2023: 13

How they qualified: Top place team in Group K, ahead of South Africa and Liberia.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: El Mehdi Benabid (Royal Armed Forces), Yassine Bounou (Al Hilal), Munir El Kajoui (Al Wehda),

Defenders: Yunis Abdelhamid (Stade Reims), Abdelkabir Abqar (Deportivo Alaves), Nayef Aguerd (West Ham United), Yahya Attiat-Allah (Wydad Casablanca), Mohamed Chibi (Pyramids), Achraf Hakimi (Paris St Germain), Noussair Mazraoui (Bayern Munich), Chadi Riad (Real Betis), Romain Saiss (Al Shabab)

Midfielders: Selim Amallah (Valencia), Sofyan Amrabat (Manchester United), Oussama El Azzouzi (Bologna), Bilal El Khannouss (Racing Genk), Azzedine Ounahi (Olympique de Marseille), Amir Richardson (Stade Reims)

Forwards: Amine Adli (Bayer Leverkusen), Sofiane Boufal (Al Rayyan), Ayoub El Kaabi (Olympiakos), Youssef En-Nesyri (Sevilla), Abdessamad Ezzalzouli (Real Betis), Amine Harit (Olympique de Marseille), Ismael Saibari (PSV Eindhoven), Tarik Tissoudali (Gent), Hakim Ziyech (Galatasaray).

(Compiled by Mark Gleeson; Editing by Christian Radnedge)