It is 88 years since an African team first entered the World Cup and Walid Regragui had sailed into territory none of the previous 48 had ever charted. And yet, when it was put to the Morocco manager that Africa’s maiden semi-finalists are his continent’s greatest ever team, he demurred. Not yet, said the ever demanding Regragui.
Instead this most ambitious of managers has a new aim. Morocco had played three World Cup matches in the 21st century before he led them into seven. They have not won the African Cup of Nations since 1976, the year after Regragui’s birth. That is his new target.
