World Cup 2026: Could Morocco become a football powerhouse?

The next step for Morocco is to bring through more senior internationals through the domestic production line.

The federation also needs to strengthen club and academy infrastructure.

Chris van Puyvelde, who was technical director at the RMFF between 2022 and 2025, said the target by the next World Cup was to have an equal split between Moroccan-born players and those raised elsewhere.

But he warned the “total organisation inside the country needs to be better”.

There is a delicate balance to strike, given the increasing demand for results, which brings with it the danger of focusing too much on early developers rather than technical talent in the long run.

Morocco manager Mohamed Ouahbi previously experienced the need for success after his under-20 side failed to qualify for the African Nations Cup in 2023.

“We had meetings with the president,” said Van Puyvelde.

“He asked, ‘What can we do with these coaches? We lost against Libya. That’s not normal. We need to do something. Maybe we need to sack them?’

“I said, ‘President, these are very good coaches, we will support them more, we will make a structure’.”

With renewed backing, and a degree of patience, the Belgium-born Ouahbi and his staff went on to win the Under-20 World Cup in 2025.

He was promoted to the role of senior team manager just a few months later after Regragui resigned in the aftermath of the senior African Nations Cup debacle.

The trophy was later awarded to Morocco, who lost the final 1-0, after several Senegal players walked off the field in protest when the North Africans were awarded a controversial penalty in second-half stoppage time, which was subsequently missed by Brahim Diaz.

Ouahbi quickly had to turn the page before the World Cup, but the RMFF also had an eye on the future after he was handed a deal until the 2030 edition.

Morocco have the third-youngest side at the tournament – the average age of their starters has been 26 years and 126 days – and the under-20s’ success hints at a fresh crop of talent Ouahbi could look to bring through in the years to come.

It feels like Morocco are literally building towards something as the country prepares to co-host the next World Cup with Portugal and Spain.

“They are building stadiums, but they are also building the structure from the down up,” added Van Puyvelde.

“Once you get a little bit of oxygen, like Morocco did in Qatar [in 2022], you see this oxygen is spreading very fast.

“All over the country.”