Initially derided as the “avocado head”, Morocco coach Walid Regragui has long since silenced his critics. With his team at the World Cup in Qatar, he writes history and great goals, which he formulates surprisingly openly.
It’s not just Walid Regragui who’s been having fun with it for a long time. Its players from all over the world have also found pleasure in it. During training at the Abdullah-bin-Khalifa-Stadion they always slap their coach in the head in a friendly manner. Morocco’s national coach laughed and slapped his bald head after his historic successes in Qatar. The message: look, here is your “avocado head”!
Critical experts gave him this derisive name when Regragui was appointed to succeed the sacked Vahid Halilhodzic at the end of August. Yes, he had won the double of championship and African Champions League with the traditional club Wydad Casablanca, but national coach at a World Cup? He couldn’t, they said.
A good three months later, not only the critics have fallen silent. The “avocado head” brought Moroccans into ecstasy at home in Casablanca or Marrakesh as well as in Paris, Brussels or London. With the first African team to reach a World Cup semi-final – and still not enough. “Why shouldn’t we dream of the world title?” asked Regragui before the duel on Wednesday (8 p.m., ZDF, MagentaTV and in the ntv.de live ticker) with defending champion France.
Without him, this African winter fairy tale would not have been possible. However: Only a crash brought Regragui into office. His predecessor, of all people, had driven Hakim Ziyech, probably the best footballer in the country, out of the team. The Bosnian complained that he wasn’t training properly, and the noble technician then resigned insulted.
What cost Halilhodzic the job was Regragui’s approach to the crucial change. He not only brought Ziyech back and treated this ‘special’ player with ‘love and respect’. Despite a lot of resistance, he generally relied on the Europeans – and even a North American. 14 players in his World Cup team were not born in Morocco, and he impressively refuted the accusation made by some journalists and experts that they had “no heart for Morocco”.
“Every Moroccan is a Moroccan,” said Regragui. This also applies to the Canadian-born keeper Bono, the French-born captain Romain Saiss, the ex-Dortmunder Achraf Hakimi from Madrid, midfield clearer Sofyan Amrabat from the Netherlands or the former German U21 international Abdelhamid Sabiri.
Regragui herself is representative of her life: born in Corbeil-Essonnes near Paris, grew up with five siblings, he spent two months every year in his parents’ old homeland. Ran through the streets in a Milan jersey, graduated from high school, studied economics and social sciences at the request of his parents, started late in the professional business, became a Moroccan international as a dual citizen. It was only at the age of 33, when his second career as a coach was approaching, that he moved to Morocco.
“Yes, I come from a difficult neighborhood. But sometimes the experiences from where you come from help you. They make you hungrier,” says Regragui. If he can inspire people with his story, “then that would be great”. His greatest merit is not only that he made players from all over the world a “family”, but also his tactical concept, which together with his appearance not only reminds the kicker of Jürgen Klopp and inspired the nickname “Atlas-Kloppo”. And the constant beatings on the head? “These”, says Regragui with a laugh, “probably bring luck”.