Europe 1 with AFP 12:10 a.m., December 15, 2022

The historic journey of Morocco, Africa's flag bearer, came to a halt on Wednesday in the semi-finals of the 2022 Football World Cup against France (2-0), but the young team built by Walid Regragui and 15 years of work in training has the future ahead of it.

Despite its defeat against the France team on Wednesday evening (2-0) in the semi-finals of the 2022 Football World Cup, Morocco comes out of the competition with its head held high.

A performance that allowed Moroccans to win the hearts of many football fans. 

"It is above all no coincidence", explains Nasser Larguet, one of the fathers of the long-term project which led the Atlas Lions in the last four of a World Cup, the first for an African selection, lived not as an end but as a starting point.

"The legacy is there," adds the promoter of the Mohamed VI Academy, launched in 2009, which revolutionized Moroccan football.

And the team is still young.

Among the semi-finalists in Qatar, only captain Romain Saïss (32), whose thigh only lasted 20 minutes on Wednesday, and goalkeeper Yassine Bounou (31) have passed their thirties.

All the others are between 22 years old, like Ounahi, and 29, like Sofiane Boufal and Hakim Ziyech, the wingers who have swapped a lot and put Théo Hernandez on the grill.

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"Young people"

"His Majesty has put a lot of resources into advancing Moroccan football, it is also his success," said Regragui.

"Africa and Morocco are progressing, we finally understood that we had to take ourselves in hand, we showed the world that in Morocco we work and we move forward", continues the coach.

This academy is "a small stone in the building", continues Larguet.

"We had lowered the flag a bit on the local formation. We showed that we are capable of training high-level players."

Accompanied by the president of the Moroccan Federation (FRMF) Fouzi Lekjaa, the project "is based on three pillars: young people, trainers and the elite", summarizes the former trainer and coach of Olympique de Marseille.

"We decided to develop football for all ages in Morocco, boys and girls," he said.

"They have centers in all regions, no African country has screened its entire territory in this way," says Cameroon assistant coach Sébastien Migné, who has worked in several African countries for twelve years.

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"The Binationals"

Finally, it was necessary to develop elite football, "to work in depth with the training centers of professional clubs", develops Larguet.

There too the results are coming.

WAC Casablanca, coached by … Regragui, won the last African Champions League, with in particular the globalists Tagnaouti, Yahya Attiat-Allah, who entered full of pep at the break on Wednesday, and Achraf Dari.

The latter, who has since signed in Brest, played the entire semi-final, in place of Aguerd, injured and removed from the eleven where he was announced an hour before the match.

Finally, the Federation sought to "retain the dual nationals, the Hakimi, detected at 16, Mazraoui at 18, Amrabat at 19", lists Larguet, who went himself to convince Achraf Hakimi in Madrid, when he could to play for Spain.

Locally trained players and foreign-born stars: "Football is a puzzle", summarizes the trainer, adding that "Walid Regragui is the cement and the guide of this team", which had opportunities to equalize against the Blues, with a strike from Azzedine Ounahi (10th) or a return from Jawad el-Yamiq (44th).