About Almountakhab Moroccan newspaper-Written by: Badr Al-Din Al-Idrisi
There was no occasion or symposium that the national coach Walid Regragui came to, to inform us of a new list for the Atlas Lions as he accepts a continental or international football event, except that he left a thick dust around him, suffocating the scene, despite the fact that Walid is characterized by a lot of pragmatism in his choices, and despite the fact that he bears full responsibility for his choices in the name of all football laws, without pressure or dictates.
What bothers me most in Walid Regragui’s press releases are three things, as long as the space for freedom to express an opinion is guaranteed to all of us.
The first is that Walid does not explain the tactical and sporting dimensions of some of the choices he makes, but rather justifies these choices. He is the one who says that there is no external force pressuring him to choose this or that player. In doing so, he falls into strange contradictions that he can do without, because what is justified today may not be justified tomorrow, and there are many examples of this. The second matter is Walid’s fall into double standards. We can imagine the negative psychological repercussions on some of his lions. Walid turns a blind eye to the lack of competitiveness among certain players, and insists on inviting them out of compassion for their psyches and gratitude for a favor they may have done once, as they make sacrifices in order to be with the national team, even though this national team does not accept any bartering, outbidding, or appeasing feelings. In return, this “preference” or “exception” is not applied to others, which is a source of a painful headache, and even puts the national voter in a position of weakness. In the list of matches against the Central African national team, there are examples of what I mentioned that I will give you for the sake of demonstration and not to mislead. For example, calling up Bilal El Khannous, who is at a low level of competitiveness with his new club, Leicester City, is understandable and justified for a player who is entering a major tournament and needs some time to establish himself in his new football environment. In contrast, dropping the young Amir Richardson, a player for Fiorentina, on the pretext that his competitiveness has declined significantly recently, and he is addicted to sitting on the bench, this incites a questioning question, not a questioner. The third thing is that Walid Regragui is addicted, whenever he takes the stage at a press conference, dedicated to revealing the new list, to remind journalists that he does not bow to any pressure to call up this or that player, or to make these journalists a bridge through which he can cross, to respond to what he receives from the blue space from sports influencers and activists, who should definitely not be lumped into the group of media professionals. It is also absolutely unacceptable to talk about cubs that we are preparing now to be lions in two or three years, not to mention 2030, which is often mentioned in future predictions. Walid Regragui is required to do one thing, which is to prepare a national team for two football challenges, the first of which is to secure qualification for the 2026 World Cup, and the second is to win the African Cup of Nations that we will host in our country 15 months from now. This national team, if necessary, will include players aged 18, 19 or even 20, so that we do not comment on these people’s call to build the future, as Spain was crowned European champion and among its ranks is a player of Moroccan origin (Lamine Jamal), who played the entire European World Cup when he was 17. What I fear for Walid as he enters the decisive stages of building the human component for these two football challenges is that he will prolong the dance on the ropes of double speech and double standards.
