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The whistles, the deafening roars and the familiar “La la la la, Dima Maghreb” chants have become impossible to ignore wherever Morocco plays.
For anyone who was unfamiliar with the scale and intensity of their backing, the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, staged between December 2025 and January 2026, in Morocco served as the perfect introduction.
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Morocco’s supporters followed their team in huge numbers, filling up the Prince Moulay Abdellah stadium in Rabat, and turning it into a sea of red and creating a fierce atmosphere, with chants that rarely relented from the first whistle until the last.
The tournament itself ended in extraordinary fashion.
Morocco lost the final to Senegal on the pitch on 18 January. Two months later, CAF’s Appeal Board overturned the outcome after reviewing Morocco’s appeal over Senegal’s decision to leave the pitch following the award of a Moroccan penalty, one that Brahim Diaz would eventually miss before play resumed.
Morocco were subsequently awarded the title, one Senegal are contesting at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, CAS.
That tournament also hinted at what would follow at the FIFA World Cup.
Once again, Moroccan supporters have travelled in remarkable numbers, filling stadiums with whistles, songs and unwavering backing. Every match has carried the feel of a home fixture, a continuation of the connection between the team and its supporters that has become one of international football’s defining images over the past four years.
The scenes in the stands have inevitably drawn attention, but they should not overshadow what this team has achieved on the pitch.
Morocco have reached the quarter finals of the FIFA World Cup for the second successive edition. After becoming the first African nation to reach the semi finals in 2022, they have returned to the last eight in 2026.
The accomplishment becomes even more impressive when viewed through the context of how much has changed.
Only eight players from the squad that reached the semi-finals in Qatar in 2022 returned for this tournament. Three of them are goalkeepers, Yassine Bounou, Munir El Kajoui and Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti.
The remaining five are Achraf Hakimi, Noussair Mazraoui, Sofyan Amrabat, Azzedine Ounahi and Soufiane Rahimi.
Of those eight players, only four have been guaranteed starters throughout the World Cup 2026.
That is not the profile of a team simply recreating a previous success with an established core. It is the profile of a side that has rebuilt while remaining competitive at the highest level, an achievement that is often far more difficult than sustaining continuity.
The changes have not been limited to the playing squad.
Walid Regragui, the coach who guided Morocco into history in 2022, resigned in March, A few months after the AFCON. Explaining his decision, he said the squad had become mentally exhausted and needed “a fresh face, a different energy and a new perspective” before the World Cup.
The Royal Moroccan Football Federation responded by promoting Mohamed Ouahbi, who had led Morocco’s Under 20 side to a World Cup title.
The timing left little room for a gradual transition.
Yet Morocco are back in the quarter-finals, where France await, the very team that ended their remarkable run in the semi-finals four years ago.
This is not simply a continuation of what happened in 2022. It is the beginning of a new cycle, under a new coach, with a significantly different group of players, producing the same level of performance on football’s biggest stage.
If this were 2022, or the previous World Cup format, Morocco would already be in another World Cup semi final.
Using the equivalent number of matches played, they have once again reached the last eight. The difference is that the expanded tournament means this stage is now called the quarter final. It does not make the achievement any less significant. If anything, it reinforces the consistency Morocco have shown across two World Cup cycles.
That is real progress.
Calling Morocco Africa’s best team is no longer a claim built on sentiment. It is a judgement backed by evidence accumulated over the past four years.
There is, however, a different conversation to be had about whether they are Africa’s greatest team.
That argument remains open because Morocco have not dominated the Africa Cup of Nations in the way some of the continent’s greatest sides have. In fact, should they remain AFCON champions following the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s judgment, it would mean neither of their continental titles was secured by winning a final over 90 or 120 minutes.
One arrived through an alternative tournament format, the other through a boardroom ruling.
That context naturally counts against them in any discussion about Africa’s greatest national team.
It does not, however, weaken the argument that they are currently Africa’s best team.
Reaching the 2022 World Cup semi finals was not a fluke. Returning to the quarter finals in 2026, despite a new coach and a significantly changed squad, suggests it was the beginning of something far more sustainable.
The identity of this team is unmistakable. The resilience, the discipline, the fight, the energy and the willingness to compete for every moment have become defining characteristics. Morocco are exceptionally difficult to play against, regardless of the opposition.
That is why, when many other African nations fell in the round of 32 of the 2026 World Cup, the thought inevitably crosses the mind that Morocco might have found a way through. They have earned that level of belief through repeated performances on football’s biggest stage.
Morocco may not have dominated the Africa Cup of Nations in recent years, but how do you argue against them being Africa’s best team when their body of work at the World Cup continues to grow?
The debate over Africa’s greatest national team will continue, and rightly so.
The debate over Africa’s best team, at least in the present, is becoming impossible to argue otherwise.
Morocco have spent four years producing evidence that is difficult to ignore. Another deep World Cup run only strengthens the case.
Whether people agree or not is almost secondary now.
The evidence has been doing the talking for quite some time.
