WORLD CUP 2022 – From the crisis to the quarter-final dream: who is Regragui, the man who created the Morocco of miracles

It happens that the World Cup often changes your life. It happens that, one way or another, you find a formula that works and build a virtuous path, transforming an eternal promise never kept into a team capable of challenging and beating the best superpowers in the world. And all of this happens even if, for many, almost everyone, you are nothing more than a perfect stranger. If this Morocco, as Hakimi said recently, “it’s not a team, but a family” the merit is also and above all of Walid Regragui, the perfect nobody who turned believing in his proposal and, above all, in his men. And who is now challenging Spain, another superpower, with the aim of giving himself an appointment with history.

Identity, ideas and strength of the group: Regragui, the return to the past for a turning point

Morocco chose Regragui just over three months ago. It’s August and the African national team is experiencing a phase of absolute crisis between poor performance and internal dynamics that are now more than compromised: the now ex coach Halilodzic has long remarked with the bad guys that he is at the top of the food chain, cracking relations with various senators including the purged Ziyech even out of the round of summons. The climate is unsustainable, the federation seizes the opportunity and surprises Regragui. A past as a poor footballer between Ligue One and La Liga, an even more anonymous present as a coach with experiences far removed from the football that matters. moreover, Walid was not even born in his homeland but in France, precisely in Corbeil-Essonnes.