The coach of the Moroccan national team, Walid Regragui, observed some players in Saudi Arabia in preparation for the upcoming gathering in June.
This approach has become common practice. After Marc Brys (Cameroon) and Vladimir Petkovic (Algeria), it’s now Walid Regragui’s turn to embark on a tour to identify players ahead of the resumption of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in June. According to information from Le360 Sport, the head of the Lions of the Atlas traveled to Saudi Arabia. Thursday night, he was in Mecca, specifically at the King Abdul Aziz Stadium, to attend the match of the 29th round of the Saudi Pro League between Al-Wehda and the bottom-placed Al-Hazem (0-2).
Regragui supervised a forgotten player
According to the same source, the former coach of Wydad Casablanca was accompanied by his assistant Rachid Benmahmoud and a player absent from the national team, namely Al-Wehda’s defender, Jawad El Yamiq (32 years old), currently injured and not called up since last November. The goal was evidently to observe the other two Moroccans from the Meccan team: goalkeeper Munir Mohamedi, but especially the 35-year-old midfielder, Fayçal Fajr, never called up by the coach.
In his second season with the Knights of Mecca, the tireless midfielder is simply the most used player in the squad (32 appearances, all as a starter, and over 2,800 minutes played). At the same time, the former Caen player is the top provider with 8 assists and the fourth top scorer of the club in the league (4 goals), eight goals behind the Nigerian Odion Ighalo (12 goals).
Although he hasn’t been spared from his team’s collective crisis, he retains his chances of being called up for the semi-finalists of the 2022 World Cup. With 51 international appearances (4 goals), his last appearance with the Moroccan squad dates back to June 13, 2022. On that occasion, he stood out by converting a penalty to open the scoring against Liberia (0-2) in the qualifiers for the 2023 AFCON.
