Former international Mustapha Hadji criticises Sofyan Amrabat’s reported refusal to wear the Morocco shirt as long as Mohamed Ouahbi is head coach, and recalls that the national team comes before individual moods.
According to Africa Soccer, Sofyan Amrabat, an Ajax Amsterdam player, has reportedly decided he will no longer represent Morocco as long as Mohamed Ouahbi remains in charge of the national team. Former African Ballon d’Or winner Mustapha Hadji criticised that decision in an interview with Kooora, relayed by Africa Soccer.
For Hadji, representing Morocco must come before disagreements with the coach. No player is bigger than Morocco, he said.
The shirt before the disagreements
Hadji delivers a blunt line, in English: “Who are you? You have to.. You come to play and keep quiet”. A sentence that can be translated as: you come to play and you keep quiet.
The former international does not go into the details of the reasons for the disagreement between Amrabat and Ouahbi, which the case does not document.
The refusal attributed to the Ajax player remains, at this stage, attributed to Africa Soccer: it is a press report, not a statement from Sofyan Amrabat himself.
Saibari, a false nine and a Barcelona heritage
Hadji also defends Mohamed Ouahbi’s work, whose style he believes is inspired by FC Barcelona and allows the team to play with a false number 9. Ismael Saibari, of Bayern Munich, played in that role at the 2026 World Cup and stood out there.
“It is true that Saibari led the attack at the World Cup despite not being a classic striker, but Mohamed Ouahbi can deploy his players in more than one way, and he is influenced by Barcelona’s style”, Hadji explains to Buaksib. He thus stresses that the attack does not depend on a natural centre-forward.
Hadji also names Yasser Zabiri, who plays in La Liga, among the promising young attackers: “We have young attacking options who shone at the Under-20 World Cup, among them Yasser Zabiri, who plays in the Spanish league, and I do not see that there is a crisis in this position for the Moroccan national team”, he assures.
Yamal, Moroccan blood and the support of forty million
Hadji finally mentions Lamine Yamal, the FC Barcelona player now capped by Spain. According to him, Morocco’s forty million people support the player despite his choice: “Although Yamal represents Spain today, as Moroccans we love him and support him, and we consider that his blood is Moroccan”, he tells Buaksib.
For Hadji, that choice is also explained by the player’s young age and by the pressure he was under: it was difficult for him to turn down playing, so early, for the Spanish senior team.
Morocco face Niger on 13 November 2026 at 21:00, in CAN qualifying, according to Buaksib.