Morocco hope World Cup feelgood factor can help lift their Afcon 'curse'

Hard to pinpoint the precise moment when Africa, en masse, fell in love with Morocco’s national football team, but the peak of pan-continental support would probably have been reached sometime between quarter to four, Casablanca time, on December 10, 2022 and about an hour and seven minutes later.

The first moment was when Youssef En-Nesyri defied gravity in Qatar, rising so high in front of Ruben Dias that the Portugal defender seemed almost to shrink in stature. En Nesyri’s commanding header put Morocco 1-0 ahead in their World Cup quarter-final.

At ten to five, with the stadium clock ticking past 90 minutes, Yassine Bounou – ‘Bono’ to his hundreds of millions of fans across Africa and the Arab world – then scrambled off his line to save from Cristiano Ronaldo.

Morocco had hung on, and delivered a piece of history to share across huge portions of the planet. They were the first African or Arab side to make the last four of a World Cup.

The feelgood factor lives on, felt not only in the curiosity that attaches to the Atlas Lions as they embark, at an Africa Cup of Nations beginning in Ivory Coast on Saturday, on their first major tournament since the World Cup.

The legacy has helped put an extra spring in the step of African football as a whole. At the next World Cup, with its expanded format, nine African countries, up from the current five, will go to North America aspiring to match, or better, Morocco’s landmark of a semi-final.

At the World Cup after that, some will have a chance of playing on their own continent, Morocco’s joint candidacy with Spain and Portugal having been approved, with a tweak or two, by Fifa for the 2030 event.

But then Morocco rather needed to reach out to Africa, to be better appreciated