The coach of the Morocco team, Walid Regragui, will unveil this Friday, March 14, the list of players called up for the matches against Niger and Tanzania, counting for the fifth and sixth days of the African qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. Surprises are to be expected. Chamseddine Talbi (Club Bruges, Belgium), who recently chose Morocco as his sporting nationality, as well as Anas Salah-Eddine, the left back of AS Roma who decided to play for Morocco to the detriment of the Netherlands, and Hamza Igamane, playing for Scottish Rangers, should appear on Regragui’s list. Defender Samy Mmaee from Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia could also make his return to the national team after a long period of absence. The Moroccan technician should also call on new players to replace some recently injured starters, such as attackers Zakaria Aboukhlal (Toulouse FC) or Ayoub El Kaabi (Olympiakos). However, due to his ability to recover, Aboukhlal could resume training by next week. Nothing is certain regarding El Kaabi who is following intensive treatment and rehabilitation sessions to be ready for the match scheduled for next Thursday in the Europa League, after having missed the last three matches with his club.
The coach of the Morocco team has reportedly called up only three players from the Moroccan championship. These are defender Abdelhak Assal and goalkeeper Munir Mohamedi, both playing at Renaissance de Berkane, and goalkeeper Rachid Ghanimi from FUS Rabat. Regragui is expected to release his final list of 26 or 28 players this Friday at a press conference. The summoned players should meet on March 16 at the Mohammed VI Football Center in Rabat for a closed-door training session. The Atlas Lions will carry out two training sessions per day until March 21, when they will cross crampons with Niger at the Oujda stadium, during the fifth day of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup which will take place in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Achraf Hakimi and his teammates will then face the Tanzanian team on March 25, during the sixth day. The Moroccan team is leader of group E with 9 points, followed by Niger and Tanzania, tied with 6 points.
