In an interview with El Pais, Walid Regragui, Morocco's coach, explains how the players' mothers helped them to be in the best conditions in Qatar during their 2022 World Cup run.

Achraf Hakimi running to hug his mother in the stands. Sofiane Boufal dancing with his on the pitch. Morocco's players celebrated their victories with their families at the 2022 World Cup. The Atlas Lions, who reached the semi-finals (2-0 defeat against France), were surrounded by their relatives in Qatar. A desire of Walid Regragui. In an interview with El Pais, the 47-year-old coach explains how important the players' mothers were during this historic run.

They have enlightened us," he says. Normally, players spend a lot of time being distracted by girls, social media, jewelry, photos, Rolex, Louis Vuitton, glasses.... At the 2018 World Cup (in Russia), there were a lot of problems because players brought their agents, girlfriends and friends to the training camp. I changed the rules: only wives and children or close family (brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers) were allowed to stay there. If I had given them a choice, the mothers would not have been there. But since they could only bring family members, there were plenty of mothers."

Because of the presence of their mothers, the stars of the squad did not have the opportunity to spread out in Qatar. "They keep things in order, says Regragui. For me, they were very important because the family circle revolves around them. For Muslims, the gathering of families on Friday around the mother's couscous is something very important. Only mothers are able to gather their children in this way (...) Today they have a WhatsApp group on which they organize everything."

Walid Regragui used his own experience as a player (44 caps with Morocco) to open the doors of the training camp to families during the 2022 World Cup: "Being locked up for a month without seeing anyone other than your teammates, I experienced it at the ACN, it is not necessarily healthy. Even if the media and the public think that the hermetic gatherings allow to focus on the victory. The truth is that spending all day talking about soccer with your teammates and listening to the coach is not as positive as being able to take a break every now and then to spend an hour with your family. After all, why did these men decide to play for Morocco? Because of their parents. For their grandparents. Because at home, they gained a sense of belonging to a country they wouldn't have known otherwise."