Moroccan fans celebrate in Rabat the qualification for the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (Twitter)
The impressive scenes of fan jubilation, from the airport to the Royal Palace in Rabat, only prolong the indescribable enthusiasm in Morocco for the unprecedented results of the national football team in the World Cup held in Qatar.
King Mohammed VI made a moving tribute when he hosted the "Atlas lions" and their mothers in the royal palace.
The Moroccan team became the first African-Arab team to advance to the World Cup semi-finals.
The result she achieved was no accident.
The King of Morocco himself oversaw the construction of a soccer academy bearing his name, which he financed directly.
This academy provided four players to the team that played in Qatar.
In addition, the reorganization of the country's clubs allowed them to dominate competitions on the African continent, with Qatar 2022 being the realization of Mohammed VI's vision in the field of sports, and especially in the country's football industry.
Beyond the statistics and the numbers, this victory has cultural and political consequences that affect Morocco and the world, even if foreigners will not notice it too much.
The team includes players born and raised in the Netherlands, France, Belgium and other European countries.
Children of immigrants, their parents obeyed the law, worked hard and built a life for themselves.
Their children grew up with values of hard work, tolerance.
They played in school leagues, alongside friends of different faiths and languages.
More in Walla!
The Moroccan team managed to forget the troubles in the Arab world.
Now he is starting to wake up from the dream
The Moroccan national team is a finger in the eye of the Western world • The Moroccan national team puts its finger in the eye of the Western world
The Moroccan Israelis celebrating Morocco's victory: "The underdog won, playing with all their heart"
Shachel's Triple Safe: 3 devices that can save lives - at a special price
The Moroccan team became the first African-Arab team to advance to the World Cup semi-finals.
Morocco national team fans (Photo: GettyImages, Lionel Hahn)
They are both natives and new immigrants.
As adults, these athletes recognized their family ties to their ancestral homeland, allowing the Moroccan people to accept them as their own.
However, the players did not feel the need to make statements against the countries in which they grew up.
This multi-layered identity, full of tolerance, is more and more common today in our globalized world.
We accept that key players can come from anywhere in the world, come together and overcome cultural gaps.
An important victory for liberalism and tolerance.
Another cultural sign shown in the World Cup is the way families are treated.
The Moroccan players went to the World Cup with their parents, a fact that came up repeatedly in the Moroccan media.
Respecting parents was once a universal value.
This World Cup victory shows that even stars can find a balance between personal achievement and family connection.
The World Cup games also contributed to the promotion of world peace.
One in twenty Israelis has parents or grandparents who once lived in Morocco.
After Morocco's victory, many of them who visited flooded the streets in jubilation, alongside many Israelis who have no direct or indirect connection to Morocco.
This should give us hope that the Abraham Accords, which allowed four Arab countries (including Morocco) to recognize Israel and maintain diplomatic relations with it, can succeed.
The Moroccan players went to the World Cup with their parents, a fact that came up repeatedly in the Moroccan media.
The players of the national team in the national anthem (Photo: Reuters)
Albert Camus, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, said that the theater and the football field were for him "the real universities" that taught him about human nature.
According to him, the way people play games indicates their values and assumptions.
In this case, it revealed some very good things.
Ahmed Cherai is a publisher living in Morocco. He is a member of the boards of directors of the Atlantic Council, the International Crisis Group, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies and the Center for the National Interest.
news
opinions and interpretations
Tags
Morocco national team
FIFA World Cup
Morocco
Qatar
