Inside Ksar El-Kébir, hometown of Achraf Hakimi’s mother | OneFootball

Born in Spain, Achraf Hakimi, 27, is the son of Saida from Ksar El-Kébir in northern Morocco. He is expected to return to the starting side for Sunday’s round of 16 against Tanzania.

According to L'Équipe, while the Africa Cup is under way, Ksar El-Kébir moves to a rural rhythm of farming and sugar beet. Recent heavy rain is a blessing after years of sparse rainfall.

In Dokhan, the municipal ground became the Achraf Hakimi Stadium on 10 January 2023. Weeks after Qatar’s World Cup, Hakimi arrived with his mother and nearly 9,000 packed Club Sportif Kasri’s small venue, founded in 1938. The mayor, Mohamed Simo, has faced embezzlement and corruption trials in the past two years involving hundreds of thousands of dirhams, and has often been acquitted.

The stadium has three stands, one presidential and two ends, with yellow and blue seats for at most 2,000. Its concourses are strewn with rubble and plastic, and Oulaya said she cannot manage alone. Club Sportif Kasri play in the lower divisions, the assistant coach Youssef Dahbi places them in the third tier, though they sit lower.

Dahbi showed visitors the old Diwan quarter and Saida’s former family home, after introducing coach Mustafa Charki and Hakimi’s cousin Zakaria. Its ochre and yellow walls, worn by time, carry Rif mountains painted like guardians. A former cleaner, Saida Mouh grew up there before moving to Spain at 20. Hakimi has said work was scarce and his parents had to fight hard.

Source: L'Équipe