Lamine Yamal, Morocco’s unfinished project as Spain won the race | OneFootball

According to L'Équipe, the Royal Moroccan Football Federation tracked Barcelona prodigy Lamine Yamal from the age of 10, hoping to build lasting ties. He instead made his Spain senior debut on 8 September 2023, aged 16.

Two weeks earlier he had a courteous dinner in Barcelona with Walid Regragui, his lawyer seated separately for the formalities. It was Morocco’s last attempt, with the federation aware it trailed after the winger played the Euro U17 in Hungary.

Regragui urged him to take his time, and on 23 September 2022 president Fouzi Lekjaa had voiced similar caution around a 2-0 win over Chile. In late August 2023, days after the dinner, Yamal phoned Regragui to confirm La Roja.

Recruitment chief Rabie Takassa, 42, called the outcome sad and frustrating, while accepting it. The scout, who helped bring Achraf Hakimi into Morocco’s U17s, had followed Yamal for years.

He first spotted him on Barça TV, after seeing him excel at seven-a-side in La Masia, and began a careful follow-up without direct approaches to a minor. Contact started in 2017, with visits to the family home in Rocafonda, Mataro, meeting grandmother Fatima, father Mounir Nasraoui, uncle Abdelkhalak and cousin Mohamed’s father.

At home, mother Sheila Ebana favoured Spain, as did first agent Ivan de La Pena then successor Jorge Mendes. From late 2022 into early 2023, Spain’s new sporting director Albert Luque countered Morocco’s push, with club coach Xavi Hernandez’s messages about Spain, the Ballon d’Or and the Euros resonating with a 15-year-old focused on the Euros.

Lekjaa wished Yamal well and said his success could set an example for young Moroccans.

Source: L'Équipe