She has been absent from Morocco for 26 years. Ibrahim Diaz is on a new mission
Spanish daily Marca reports that Brahim Diaz has become one of the main candidates for the African Ballon d’Or for the best African player of the year 2024, following his distinguished performances with the Moroccan national team and Real Madrid.
Marca’s report explains that Ibrahim Diaz’s victory in three championships with Real Madrid last season, in addition to the European Super Cup at the start of the current season, will place him as one of the most prominent candidates for the CAF Ballon d’Or, for the best African player.
Diaz had a career-best scoring record of 12 goals and 9 assists for Real Madrid last season, and he has also started the current campaign strongly, having made two contributions in the first four rounds of La Liga.
Diaz managed to score his first international goal with the Moroccan national team and led them to sweep Gabon 4-1 in the first round of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, before coming back and scoring again and leading the Atlas Lions to defeat Lesotho with a score of 1-0.
Ibrahim Diaz left a distinctive mark on the Moroccan national team, and he left a distinctive mark on Real Madrid, when he led them last season to win 3 major championships, which are the Spanish League, the Spanish Super Cup and the European Champions League.
The award for the best African player has been absent from Moroccan football for 26 years, notably since the last Moroccan to win it, Mustafa Hajji, in 1998 with Deportivo La Coruña, and Diaz will be responsible for returning the award to Moroccans after two and more than half-decades.
On the contrary, the Moroccan star will aspire to go further, that is, to become the first player in the history of Real Madrid to win the African Ballon d’Or, because not all African merengue stars have managed to win this award, including the Togolese Adebayor and Cameroonian Eto’o.
