Former Belgian national soccer player and coach Marc Wilmots, head coach at Raja Casablanca until February, compares the Moroccan national team to the Schalke UEFA Cup heroes.
“The squad is a unit. Everyone runs for everyone, everyone fights for everyone, everyone works for everyone – literally until they drop, until they cramp,” Wilmots told the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers: “It kind of reminds me of Schalke, our story from 1997 with the Eurofighters.”
The former midfielder was under contract with the Royal Blues from 1996 to 2000 and from 2001 to 2003. 25 years ago, the 53-year-old won the UEFA Cup with S04.
Morocco is the first team from Africa to reach a World Cup semi-final, on Wednesday (8 p.m. / ZDF and Magenta TV) against defending champions France for a place in the final against Argentina or Croatia.
Morocco national coach Walid Regragui has created a collective, praised Wilmots: “He has also managed to close the gap that sometimes exists between the local professionals and the legionnaires, most of whom were born abroad.”
Morocco’s side have above-average individual skills such as Achraf Hakimi from Paris St. Germain, Bayern defender Noussair Mazraoui, defender Romain Saiss (Besiktas Istanbul), midfield strategist Sofyan Amrabat (Fiorentina) and striker Youssef En-Nesryi (FC Sevilla). “The coach has formed a formation around this block in which a lot is right,” said Wilmots.