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Sofyan Amrabat, the tunnel boring machine that 'signed' Morocco

2022-12-14T11:18:25.159Z


The Dutch-born midfielder, key in defensive football for the North Africans, exemplifies the Arab country's recruitment of players trained in Europe: 14 of the 26 called up come from the old continent


The life and football of Sofyan Amrabat (Huizen, The Netherlands; 26 years old), one of the impacts of the World Cup, well illustrate the great success story of Morocco: for its rattling and Stakhanovist football in a

cholista-inspired selection,

and for how he was recruited by the North African federation when he was a teenager, an important factor in a team in which 14 of the 26 called up were not born on that side of the Strait, the highest proportion of the tournament.

Now he travels kilometers, leaves grooves and unfolds like a tunnel boring machine in the fields of Qatar, a present that contrasts with his origins in the quarry in Holland, his country of birth, which rejected him because he did not see his physical level.

Who would have guessed watching him play in the Gulf.

The Dutch summoned him to play four friendlies with the sub-15s and they no longer called him.

They saw it small, they explained later.

It was 2011. His body and his game have changed radically since then, and the World Cup has triggered it.

Until his appointment this Wednesday in the semifinals with the France of the Tchouameni pivot (8:00 p.m., La 1 and World Goal), Sofyan Amrabat has acquired during these three weeks in Doha a reputation for swallowing rival midfields.

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Luckily for him and for these Atlas Lions who have caused astonishment, his departure a decade ago from the

Oranje

plans coincided almost in time with the start in the Moroccan federation of a program to attract players with local roots in Europe who could strengthen the selection.

His grandfather had left in the early seventies for Huizen, a town of 40,000 inhabitants east of Amsterdam, to work in a cheese factory and the entire clan settled there.

That was Amrabat's home, with a very strict father, until soccer took him around the world.

His name was one of the hundreds of youngsters to follow in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium and Spain that appeared in the folder of the Dutchman Pim Verbeek, the deceased technical director of Morocco between 2010 and 2014, according to the Dutch media

NRC .

.

And on him the Moroccan federation began to spread the nets.

Verbeek, this newspaper reported, had a coffee with him and his father in Utrecht in 2012, and then the management officials invited them to a meeting in Casablanca, which was also attended by his brother Nordin, eight years older than Sofyan and a former Leganés soccer player. and Malaga.

Morocco, who called him up in 2013 for the U-17 World Cup, had taken the lead.

The Netherlands, in view of the player's evolution, tried to react and also mobilized, but it was too late.

In 2017, the midfielder made his senior debut.

His case exemplifies one of the reasons for the Moroccan growth in Qatar: fishing for players with roots in the North African country, born or trained outside its borders, but who did not find their place in the places of adoption or who, out of a simple sense of belonging, preferred the shirt of its origins.

The formula is not new in the world of national teams, although few had obtained as much profit from it as the first African and Arab team to reach the World Cup semifinals.

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Another key, the most immediate, has to do with the game.

Morocco moves like an army that rebounds everything (he has only conceded one goal and it was an own goal, from Aguerd against Canada), and there Amrabat has made gold.

With a not inconsiderable ball output, where he has attracted the most attention has been due to his physical and defensive display.

Until the quarterfinals, he was the footballer with the most recoveries (41) in which the team that scored the most clearances (132) and the second with the least possession of the ball (31.7%, only behind Costa Rica's 30.5%). .

"He is our first attacker and our first defender",

He was praised by the coach Walid Regragui, who one of the first things he did when he took office was to fly to Florence to have dinner with him and put him in the basket.

Last Saturday, in full euphoria, the coach established himself as a defender of the

cholista

philosophy , in low hours but valid for the Moroccan cause.

“I am going to say something that is not right, but that he has done very well [for Simeone].

We are tactically good, with a very big heart, we don't leave spaces, we run and we know that we have technical players who can make the difference”, he emphasized.

A plan that has helped to elevate Amrabat, known in his stage at Hellas Verona as The Monster.

The first trace of him had been left at Utrecht with Erik Ten Hag, then he unsuccessfully promoted to Feyenoord and Bruges (here he was accused of a negative attitude), and in Verona he resumed flight.

In 2020 he signed him to Fiorentina for 19.5 million.

The night before the match with Spain, he was with the physio until three in the morning dealing with his back problems and before jumping onto the field they had to give him an injection.

He ended up with full of duels won (seven) and posting several photomontages on his networks in which he loaded and subdued the entire midfield of La Roja.

Last Saturday, after defeating Portugal, he left the warrior side of him and became mystical: "Praise God, this is the grace of God," he wrote.

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Source: elparis

All sports articles on 2022-12-14

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