France’s match with Morocco sums up this diverse, multicultural World Cup

When Ayyoub Bouaddi steps on to the pitch in Boston for the World Cup quarter-final on Thursday, he will do so in a Morocco shirt. Just 101 days prior, he was wearing a France kit as he captained the U21 side to a 2-1 win over Iceland in a European Championship qualifier.

Bouaddi had been coveted by Morocco and, speaking before that game, he said he needed some time to consider his international future. “I don’t want to rush things,” added the Lille midfielder. Six weeks later, he was named in the Morocco squad for the World Cup. “A big loss,” is how Hubert Fournier, the technical director of the French national team, described it. “A lost treasure,” said L’Équipe.

“He is a very good player,” said Guy Stéphan, France’s assistant manager, earlier this week. “He made a choice. We won’t criticise him for that, quite the opposite. He chose a different sporting nationality. He isn’t the first and he won’t be the last.”

Bouaddi is not an isolated case. There are 99 players at the World Cup this summer who were born in France – 32 more than the next most represented nation, the Netherlands. Just seven of the Morocco squad were born in the country. Three were born in the Netherlands, who they beat on penalties in the last 32. Six were born in France, their next opponents.

After Morocco beat the Oranje on penalties, Azzedine Ounahi quipped that the “providers” had won. France, and specifically the wider Paris region, the Île-de-France, are the biggest “providers” at this World Cup. Of the 99 players born in France, 52 come from this region; just 12 play for the France national team.

There were eight players from the Île-de-France region at the World Cup in Russia in 2018, and 12 at the tournament in Qatar four years ago. There is a clear upward trend. São Paulo was once the world centre of player development, but no longer. Scouts have long since taken note, and it is a hotbed that is being exploited. Having largely ignored the rich talent pool on their doorstep, Paris Saint-Germain have shifted their strategy in recent seasons to provide a pathway for academy players to break into the first team – as Warren Zaïre-Emery and Senny Mayulu have recently.

The intense level of competition is a driver of increasing standards. With football seen as a means to social mobility, there is an unrelenting intensity, even at amateur level. At club level, it is a situation that is creating a surplus of talent. “There are too many talents for clubs to use and make the most of,” one scout tells us. Consequently, foreign clubs are increasingly dialled into the Parisian scene, and France more generally.

It is a situation mirrored at international level, where the surplus created is France’s gift to the world. Morocco are certainly a beneficiary of the talent being nurtured in France. There is no ill feeling towards Bouaddi, despite the attempts of the French football federation – and reportedly Zinédine Zidane – to convince him to play in bleu.

Bouaddi is not the only player who could line up against the country of his birth in the quarter-final. Neil El Aynaoui, born in Nancy, will probably partner him in midfield. Samir El Mourabet, born in Strasbourg and now playing for his home town club, is another contender to start in midfield; Issa Diop, who represented France up to U21 level, will probably start in defence. Gessime Yassine, born near Marseille, and Redouane Halhal, born in Montpellier, are also part of Mohamed Ouahbi’s squad.

They are part of a distinctly multicultural Morocco squad, comprised of 19 players born abroad – from France, the Netherlands, Spain, Canada and Belgium. Morocco are an extreme example, but 23% of players at the tournament are not representing the country of their birth.

Morocco have strong arguments to attract talent, beyond matters of the heart, which are often evoked when players opt to represent their ancestral nation. Having reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2022 and constructed the Mohammed VI Academy – a national training centre that rivals the installations of the most elite European nations – there is ambition and a vision.

France’s colonial history in north Africa means there is a significant Maghrebin diaspora in the country. More than a tenth of France’s population was born elsewhere; nearly half of them were born in Africa. This diversity was France’s strength when they won the World Cup in 1998, encapsulated in the “Black, Blanc, Beur” slogan.

Diversity continues to be France’s strength, despite attacks on it. In 2024, Enzo Fernández apologised after he and other Argentina players were filmed singing a chant that included the phrase “They play for France, but all come from Angola,” from inside the team bus.

After France beat Paraguay in the last-32 stage, Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla described Kylian Mbappé as a “colonised Cameroonian, desperately trying to pass himself off as French”. The FFF have denounced the “utterly abhorrent and unacceptable” comments, as have the UN Human Rights office, the Paraguayan government has distanced itself from the remarks, and French prosecutors have launched an investigation.

The comments are more than just a backdrop as France prepare to face Morocco. Politics and sport have been intertwined throughout the tournament: from the treatment of the Iran delegation, the decision to bar Somali referee Omar Artan from entering the US, and Donald Trump’s intervention in Folarin Balogun’s suspension.

Mbappé has been at the centre of a political storm after his criticism and concern about the rise of the far right in France drew criticism from Michel Platini before the tournament. “The France national team is representative of the French population,” said Deschamps in May in response. After Amarilla’s attack on Mbappé, FFF president Philippe Diallo reiterated the point, saying: “France’s national team players represent France.”

Diversity is France’s strength and other countries, including Morocco, are now benefiting from it too.

This is an article by Get French Football News