MELBOURNE, NAARM, Australia — “‘We are really proud in Morocco of the achievements that we have made so far,” Ghizlane Chebbak, speaking through a translator, said on Sunday ahead of the game with Germany. “We feel a sense of pride and honour to represent our country on the world stage; we have great motivation, and we are eager to make our mark on this tournament. There is no mission impossible.”
No mission impossible. It’s both a signal of defiant determination from Morocco’s 32-year-old captain and a statement that could be a descriptor for Moroccan football as a whole, given what has been produced by the North African nation’s men’s and women’s sides over the past 12 months.
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After the men’s team’s remarkable run to the 2022 World Cup semifinals, the latest chapter of Morocco’s story sees the Atlas Lionesses not only compete in a Women’s World Cup for the first time, but also as the first-ever team from the Arab world to compete in women’s football’s premier showcase.
Under manager Reynald Pedros, Chebbak and her teammates began this journey and secured their place Down Under when they broke new ground in reaching the final of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) for the first time last year, bettering two previous appearances in 1998 and 2000 that had produced just a single win combined.
Riding a wave of home support, with their ranks swelled by players attached to local powers AS FAR — who won their first CAF Women’s Champions League in 2022 — and the likes of Tottenham’s Rosella Ayane, they downed long-standing African powers Nigeria in the semifinal before falling agonisingly short (2-1) against South Africa in front of 51,000 fans at Rabat’s Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in the final.
“Nobody expected us to do as well as we did at AFCON,” Ayana told ESPN earlier this month. “I think it was our first time to make it to the final stages of the competition and if I’m completely honest, I don’t think anyone expects anything of us at the World Cup. But I don’t mind that, because being an underdog, you just have everything to prove and absolutely no pressure, so I’m excited to go and see what we can do as Morocco.”
Following in the footsteps of her biggest supporter and her father Larbi, who was part of Morocco’s only AFCON-winning side back in 1976, Chebbak finished as top scorer (alongside Nigeria’s Rasheedat Ajibade) and player of the tournament. She became the toast of a nation that, though initially sceptical and resistant towards women’s football, has increasingly been won over by the team’s success.
Such is the excitement and affection for the team across Morocco that the team was greeted by fans at each of their pre-World Cup training stops across Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
“We are honoured to be the first Arab country to take part in the Women’s World Cup,” Chebbak added. “We feel that we have to shoulder a big responsibility to show a good image, and to show the achievements that the Moroccan football team has made in terms of progress by qualifying for the World Cup. This is a great milestone for us and we hope that our match with Germany tomorrow will pave the way for other matches.”
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A strategy of deliberate investment in the promotion and development of women’s football across Morocco stretches back to 2009. However, that has been supercharged by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) in recent years, stretching back to the opening of a women’s football academy in 2016 and the hosting of a symposium on African Women’s Football in 2018.
In the years that follow, the FRMF has overseen the creation and subsidisation of a two-tiered professional league setup and the opening of the King Mohammed VI Training Complex; a $65m elite facility for both men’s and women’s national teams that includes full-sized, futsal and beach pitches, elite gym and medical facilities, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, classrooms, and even a hotel.
“I’m telling you, if no country has taken that into consideration and [is] acting upon getting those structures in, Morocco is going to be a powerhouse whether we like it or not,” South Africa forward Thembi Kgatlana told ESPN in March. “Because they are in the right direction of making sure they empower the women’s game in their country.”
