HIBAPRESS – Abdellatif Baraka
On the evening of Friday, December 12th, the Algerian national team left the Arab Cup competitions after a tiring match that ended with penalty kicks, thus closing the page of another representative from North Africa in this tournament. Consequently, the Moroccan national team finds itself the only one among the North African Arab teams still standing in the arena of challenge, competing steadily among three teams from Arab Asia for a place in the final, reaffirming once again that its continental and Arab presence is no longer a coincidence, but rather the fruit of an integrated football project.
The rise of the "Atlas Lions" to the semi-finals is not just a passing sporting achievement, but an extension of a reform path whose features have been becoming clear since the high message of King Mohammed VI in the National Conference for Sporting Takeoff; that message that turned into a roadmap that redrew the features of Moroccan sports, and made investment in the formation of generations a strategic option of no return.
From the womb of those directives, the Mohammed VI Football Academy was born, which today has become one of the largest nurseries of talents in Africa and the Arab world. What this institution produces of talented players resembles the harvest of a tree watered with science, discipline, and a distant vision, to become today the strongest arm in renewing the blood of the national teams.
And one cannot talk about this takeoff without stopping at the decisive role of Fouzi Lekjaa, who was able to give the Royal Moroccan Football Federation a new breath. With bold steps and thoughtful decisions, the man built a modern system based on organization, investment, infrastructure, and long-term planning, to transform Moroccan football from postponed dreams into a reality that the world talks about.
And here is the Moroccan national team standing today proudly in the semi-finals of the Arab Cup, raising the flag of the North African Arabs alone among the greats, and renewing for the world the story of the Lions who do not tire of writing the beautiful chapters of Moroccan football.
It is another confirmation that success is not the product of a match, but the result of a vision… a project… and the passion of a people who do not stop dreaming.
