After World Cup glory, Regragui seeks AFCON mantle

With exactly a month to the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023, Morocco head coach, Walid Regragui has revealed that winning the African Coach of the Year is a strong motivation to aim for more success on the continent.

The former Morocco international, who inspired the Atlas Lions to a historic semi-final place at last year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar, says that the mood in his camp is ripe to pursue continental glory.

“I am very proud and honoured to have received this beautiful award. It is not just for me. This is a collective trophy. It is a group trophy. I would never be here if it was not for the players, coaching staff, the entire team, and everyone who has supported us each step of the way,” Regragui told CAFOnline.com.

Regragui dedicated this award to his parents and especially his mother who for the first time in his footballing career – both as a player and manager left Paris to travel to watch his son in action.

“I dedicate this award to my mother. I thank both my parents for their contribution to my career but you know in Africa, mothers are more than special so I celebrate her everyday and thank her for her sacrifice over the years.”

“What we did at the World Cup was historic and when people recognize this talent, it means so much to me and everyone on the team. It was an unbelievable achievement at the World Cup. We put Africa on the world map.”

“But now, we have a different mindset. The Africa Cup of Nations is very, very tough but we are going with the same spirit and inshallah, if we do our very best, we are going to win this trophy.”

Morocco were drawn in Group F with familiar foes Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Tanzania and will play at the iconic Laurent Pokou Stadium in San Pedro in the south western part of Côte d’Ivoire.

While the 2022 Africa Coach of the Year Aliou Cisse and coach of the reigning African champions Senegal was the very first person to stand up and congratulate him on his great success, next month will see the two in-form nations battle for continental glory in Africa’s most coveted tournament.

Morocco have only won the AFCON once – in 1976 and Regragui was just five months and 20 days old. The Atlas Lions were finalists in 2004 losing to hosts Tunisia 2-1 in a tense final. They also won bronze in 1980.