When Wolves had one of the best defensive records in Europe last season and Romain Saiss seemed to be in the form of his life, Bruno Lage came up with a new nickname for an otherwise unheralded centre-back: “The Moroccan Maldini.” It may turn out the former Wolves manager was wrong. Because, for everything the great Paolo Maldini won, there was one medal he was missing. Lage should have picked another defensive great: the Moroccan Daniel Passarella, the Moroccan Franz Beckenbauer, the Moroccan Bobby Moore.
Because each was a World Cup-winning captain and now Saiss, currently of Besiktas, could join them. If one obstacle in his path is France, the country of his birth, another is the injury that meant he was stretchered off in the quarter-final victory over Portugal. The immediate sense was to fear the 32-year-old’s tournament was over. Saiss hopes he may yet be able to face Les Bleus.
