(Reuters) – Former France under-21 international Sofiane Diop has accepted a first call-up from Morocco for the start of their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign this month, coach Walid Regragui confirmed on Thursday.
Nice midfielder Diop, 23, was born in France but is also eligible for Morocco, who reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in Qatar and recently recruited another French youth international in Bayer Leverkusen winger Amine Adli.
“He (Diop) is a player who could have chosen other countries also. He deserves to be with us,” Regragui told reporters.
Morocco are scheduled to host Eritrea next Thursday in their qualification opener and despite reports the latter could withdraw from the preliminaries, Regragui said they have received no confirmation from FIFA.
The Atlas Lions will travel away to Tanzania on Nov. 21 for their second game. They also have Niger, Congo and Zambia in their pool, with only the top team automatically qualifying for the finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Morocco squad:
Goalkeepers: Yassine Bounou, Munir El Kajoui, El Mehdi Benabid
Defenders: Ghanem Saiss, Nayef Aguerd, Abdelkabir Abqar, Yunis Abdelhamid, Achraf Hakimi, Ayoub El Amloud, Noussair Mazraoui, Yahya Attiat Allah
Midfielders: Sofyan Amrabat, Azzedine Ounahi, Yahya Jabrane, Ismael Saibari, Bilal El Khannouss, Amir Richardson
Forwards: Hakim Ziyech, Sofiane Diop, Amine Harit, Youssef En-Nesyri, Tarik Tissoudali, Ayoub El Kaabi, Amine Adli, Abdessamad Ezzalzouli
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Toby Davis)
