The Real attacking midfielder did not receive guarantees from La Roja, accepting the call-up of the Atlas Lions
“I have never seen a Spanish national team player called Brahim,” Faouzi Lekija, president of the Moroccan Football Federation, said with irony and frustration. Well, for now the thing will continue to remain unseen. Brahim Diaz Abdelkader, Real Madrid player born in Málaga like his mother, while his father was born in Africa but in the Spanish enclave of Melilla, will wear the shirt of Morocco, the nation of his grandparents. The torment ended on Sunday. The former AC Milan player was in a curious and anomalous situation: Madrid had received two pre-call-ups for the next international break, one from Morocco and one from Spain.
different treatment
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But if Morocco has been ruthlessly courting Brahim for years, Spain has always treated him as a possible additional international. Brahim, after having played in all the La Roja youth national teams, asked for guarantees that De la Fuente never gave him, while Regragui has always indicated Brahim as a future pillar of his national team, which at the World Cup in Qatar beat Spain by flying until Africa’s first historic semi-final. And so Brahim chose Morocco, and in all likelihood he will make his debut with the Atlas Lions in the friendly matches against Angola and Mauritania at the end of the month. Spain will play Colombia in London and Brazil at the Bernabeu. Brahim dreamed of this match against Vinicius and Rodrygo in his stadium, but the lack of attention La Roja received pushed him to embrace his family roots.