Morocco squad changes have gone beyond one coaching switch. Mohamed Ouahbi is now in charge after Walid Regragui stepped down, and the group that reached the 2022 World Cup semi-final looks different from the one that beat Belgium, Croatia, Spain and Portugal.
Ouahbi Takes Morocco Forward
Ouahbi inherits a side that is still being judged against the scale of 2022. Morocco finished fourth then, but it scored only two goals in its last four games in Qatar, a reminder that the run was built as much on control and resistance as on constant attacking output.
That is the backdrop to the change. Regragui stepped down after winning and losing the African Cup of Nations final, ending a period that had turned Morocco into a reference point for Africa. Ouahbi arrives with that standard already set and with no room for a soft reset.
Missing Names From 2022
The squad around him is thinner than the one that carried Morocco through 2022. Hakim Ziyech and Sofiane Boufal have not played for Morocco since 2024. Romain Saiss retired from international football in February. Nayef Aguerd is injured, and Youssef En-Nesyri was omitted from the squad.
Sofyan Amrabat was in the United States and was an unused substitute against Brazil and Scotland, which leaves Morocco with the same core identity question that has followed it since the World Cup run ended: how much of that team can still be carried forward when several of its most familiar names are missing?
Morocco And The 2030 Target
Morocco is ranked sixth by Fifa, just ahead of the Netherlands in seventh, and that standing keeps the team in the conversation even as the personnel shifts. The next long-term marker is 2030, when Morocco will co-host the World Cup and wants to stage the final.
That gives the coaching change a wider frame. Morocco is being treated as a growing power, but the 2022 semi-final group has already been broken up enough that the new staff has to build continuity rather than simply protect a finished product. Ouahbi’s job is less about preserving a memory than deciding which parts of it still travel.
