Younès Belhanda, a former Morocco international, claims on RMC that Real Madrid forward Brahim Diaz warned Senegal goalkeeper Édouard Mendy about his missed penalty in the AFCON 2025 final, without offering the slightest proof.
The AFCON 2025 final between Morocco and Senegal is still being talked about. Currently at Al-Sailiya in Qatar, Younès Belhanda reignited the controversy on the “Riolo Club” show on RMC, claiming that Brahim Diaz and Senegal goalkeeper Édouard Mendy had “arranged” the penalty missed by the forward in the 90th+8 minute, according to comments reported by Goal.com.
The AFCON 2025 title has not yet been awarded: the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) must rule, with a decision expected at the end of November 2026. The former international’s remarks come in this still-open context.
“I think they arranged it”
“I think they arranged it about the penalty. I think Brahim Diaz told the goalkeeper he was going to do it,” he said, in comments reported by Goal.com. The former international is thus expressing a personal conviction, without offering the slightest concrete evidence to support it. He himself acknowledges that he has no proof of what he claims.
The penalty, attempted as a “panenka” by Brahim Diaz in the 90th+8 minute, ended up in the hands of Édouard Mendy. Senegal then won the final 1-0 after extra time, thanks to a goal from Pape Gueye in the 94th minute. These facts did not stop Belhanda from fuelling speculation.
Zidane 2006 as an example
To justify his feeling, Younès Belhanda points to the reaction of the Senegalese players to the missed penalty, which fed his suspicions. He also explains that if Brahim Diaz had scored, the assessment of the gesture would have been completely different, citing the example of Zinédine Zidane in the 2006 World Cup final. He does not expand further on his suspicions and cites no specific evidence to support his reasoning.
Belhanda does, however, qualify his remark about the Real Madrid forward: “At first, I felt anger towards him, but in the end, you tell yourself: I could have been in his place and done the same thing.” He thus touches on the difficulty of the gesture, while maintaining his conviction.
The title still in abeyance
The AFCON 2025 title therefore remains pending the CAS decision, expected at the end of November 2026. Until then, the comments of Younès Belhanda, who plays for Al-Sailiya in Qatar, remain a personal opinion, expressed by his own admission without proof.
These statements, reported by Goal.com from the RMC show, have so far given rise to no official decision linked to the penalty.