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Opinion | Morocco Has Given the Arab World Something to Cheer for Again


AMMAN, Jordan — Morocco’s superb performance at the World Cup, progress to the semi-final against France and the worldwide excitement it has generated captured a special moment for the Moroccans- rock and many others from the Arab world and beyond.

This is not just the classic tale of your underdog, a tale of the south’s global vengeance against former colonial powers and historical foes, or the rise of pride. Arabian, African and Muslim. Beyond the memes, Morocco’s performance at this year’s World Cup points to a special moment of vulnerability, self-awareness and gratuitous optimism that I haven’t seen in this region since. since the 2011 uprising.

I’m the last to usually make such grandiose statements based on a sporting event. When I was growing up in Morocco in the 1980s, I had absolutely no interest in football (don’t make me call it football). At school, I was a sassy, ​​uncoordinated kid who would be systematically picked last when teams were picked during PE class. The closest I usually get to the ball is when it hits the back of my head as I cross the field, deep in thought. During the World Cups, my friends will eagerly collect Panini sticker album of the players of the qualifying teams (the equivalent of baseball cards in international football); I prefer the dinosaur ones.

Fast-forward a little 30 years, to last week. I was in Beirut, almost in tears, in the arms of a bartender in the hotel bar. Moroccan only beat Spain in penalty shootout after a long and intense match and reached the quarterfinals for the first time in the tournament’s history. The bar erupted into shouting and applause. Before long, in Beirut, in Morocco and throughout the Arab world and much of Europe, Moroccan fans of all colors would honking their horns and celebrating late into the night. Friends, colleagues, and loved ones call or write — to me! – with congratulations. That night, I barely slept.

In the next few days, as Morocco advances to the following semi-finals beat Portugalthere are celebratory scenes from war-torn places like Gaza and congratulatory speeches from countless officials from governments and international organizations. In Amman, the capital of Jordan, where I live, companies change their ads to monetize Morocco. When I went to a store to buy a mattress, I was offered “Moroccan discount.” Once a football enthusiast, I haven’t thought about anything else for the past week; Seems like most people in the area do.

For the Moroccans, this is not just trivial chauvinism. the country has work hard for this, overhauled its football federation over a decade ago and invested more in its players. Walid Regragui, the smart coach who can eloquently explain each of his decisions with precise analysis of the opposing team’s strengths and weaknesses. Morocco isn’t just lucky; it has defeated, with a more defensively oriented strategy, the much more experienced and highly ranked teams through devastating and often devastating consequences for its players, who have repeatedly got injured again and again from putting himself in a fierce attack.

There’s a lot to be proud of, but much more fundamentally, it’s about keeping our place in the big leagues, about seeing players who look like us – a white, olive color palette. and brown; or curly and kinky hair; Hakim Ziyech’s angular, angular, contemplative features; Achraf Hakimi’s cheerfully beaming face; the charming handsomeness of the unshakable goalkeeper Yassine Bounou — reaching this high position on the world stage.

What we’re feeling is also a more developed form of national pride, with no guilt about who is a “real” Moroccan and who isn’t. Half the team consists of dual nationals and French-born Regragui himself. Of course, part of the team’s success is that it is able to attract players from Europe’s wealthy clubs, but that’s not the point. In France, far-right politicians like Eric Zemmour complained on primetime television about the national team’s overpopulation of blacks and outraged that French-Moroccans chose to support Morocco in the semi-finals. ; In Morocco, no one dares to suggest that the national team is somehow unrepresentative.

On the contrary, it represents the diversity of Morocco, the fact that it is a country of migrants, of Arabs, Berbers and Jews, who consider themselves Africans. as well as the Middle East. Some people are confused that this team can be supported by Moroccan Jews in Tel Aviv and also fly the Palestinian flag to show solidarity with an oppressed people, but that is exactly what internationalism is. and universalism has resonated in many parts of the world.

The way we feel about this World Cup is how we want to feel about our politics, our children’s future, our place in the world. It’s the same feeling I feel in Avenue Tunis Bourguiba and Cairo’s Tahrir Square in 2011, and I imagine many people felt the same way in Algiers, Beirut or Khartoum in 2019. These are moments where we can show the world a different picture from the way we fear the world. the world sees themselves as: victim or fanatic, struggling to survive amid conflict, terrorism, social and economic depression, and authoritarianism.

Team Morocco represents the way we like to think of ourselves: confident, intelligent, serious, hardworking, funny and open-minded. No matter how well things go, I know this moment of excitement is fleeting. But even after the football craze is over and we’re back to our daily struggles, we’ll stand a little taller.

Issandr El Amrani (@arabist) is a Moroccan-American writer living in Amman, Jordan, and executive director of the Middle East and North Africa region at Open Society Foundations. He writes personally.

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