In this quest for a formula that will accelerate Mexico’s transformation into the winning team it dreams of, today we will focus on the big surprise of the World Cup in Qatar: Morocco.
You probably know this, but of the 26 called up for the cup, Spanish Tiki Taka’s executioners only have 12 footballers born in their territory. Morocco contests the tournament with 14 footballers who were not born in their country. Yassine Bounou (the Sevilla goalkeeper who surprised the world on penalties), Munir Mohamedi, Romain Saïss, Achraf Hakimi, Noussair Mazraoui, Sofyan Amrabat, Selim Amallah, Amine Harit, Ilias Chair, Bilal El Khannous, Hakim Ziyech, Sofiane Boufal , Zakaria Aboukhlal and Walid Cheddira are the 14 “returnees” but select loyalists who feel the flag, the colors and the faith.
An example is Achraf Hakimi, who recently explained why he decided to play for the Atlas Lions: “I tried with the Spanish team but I saw that it’s not my place, I don’t have to felt at home. It wasn’t for anything in particular, but for what I felt, because it wasn’t what I had sucked and lived at home, which is Arabic culture, which is Moroccan. I wanted to be in the Moroccan team.”
Another identical case is that of Hakim Ziyech, who in 2015 decided to turn down the reputation of a Clockwork Orange when he began to stand out with Dutch Twente. Marco van Basten called his decision “stupid” at the time.
And here’s the question, how many similar cases will there be in Mexico around the world? And I say that because Guille Franco, Gabriel Caballero, Sinha or Rogelio Funes Mori, to name just a few of the last naturalists called up by El Tri for World Cups, have never been fully accepted by the fans.
But when you talk about Mexican Americans like Alex Zendejas from America or even Marcelo Flores who was born in Canada and speaks very little Spanish, has English ancestry but has a Mexican father, the perception changes radically. In addition, Mexico, like almost all top 20 teams, also wants to open up to the world, to the diversity of biotypes, mentality and customs. And what is better, as in the case of Moroccans, for pleasure, and not for money.
Benjamín Galdames, a Mexican native who has lived in Chile since childhood with his father, former Cruz Azul player Pablo Galdames, is another young footballer who has already been tested in the Mexico national team in their portfolio. The same case of Julián Araujo and Efraín Álvarez, born in the United States, both LA Galaxy players who joined the roster of footballers that Gerardo Martino once had to call up under pressure from the FMF.
Alejandro Gomez He is a director of AS Mexico.
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