Walid Regragui

Hoalid Regragui (born 23 September 1975), known as Walid Regragui (Arabic: وليد الركراكي, romanized: Walīd ar-Ragrāgī), is a Moroccan professional football manager and former player who played as a right-back. He is the head coach of the Morocco national team. He managed the team to fourth place at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the first African and Arab nation to make the semi-finals.[4]

Walid Regragui
Personal information
Full name Hoalid Regragui[1]
Date of birth (1975-09-23) 23 September 1975[2]
Place of birth Corbeil-Essonnes, France
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[2]
Position(s) Right-back
Club information
Current team
 Morocco (head coach)
Youth career
Corbeil-Essonnes
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1998–1999 Racing Paris 17 (3)
1999–2001 Toulouse 37 (3)
2001–2004 Ajaccio 72 (3)
2004–2006 Racing Santander 25 (0)
2007 Dijon 10 (0)
2007–2009 Grenoble 39 (0)
2009 Moghreb Tétouan
International career
2001–2009 Morocco[3] 45 (0)
Managerial career
2014–2019 FUS
2020 Al-Duhail
2021–2022 Wydad AC
2022– Morocco
Honours
Men's football
Representing  Morocco
Africa Cup of Nations
Runner-up2004
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Playing career

Born in Corbeil-Essonnes, Essonne,[5] France, Regragui was a full international for Morocco. Clubs he played for include Toulouse, AC Ajaccio, Grenoble and Racing Santander. In the summer of 2009, he moved from Grenoble to Moroccan club Moghreb Tétouan.[6]

Managerial career

Morocco

After retiring as a player, Regragui started his football coaching career as the assistant coach of Morocco's national team in September 2012.

FUS

On 8 May 2014, he landed a head coaching job with Fath Union Sport for the 2014–15 season.[7] On 22 January 2020, he left the club by mutual consent.[8]

Wydad AC

On 10 August 2021, Regragui was appointed as the head coach of Botola side Wydad AC.[9] On 30 May 2022, he led Wydad AC to win its third CAF Champions League title, after beating defending champions Al Ahly in the final.[10] He became only the second Moroccan manager to win the African Champions League, after Hussein Ammouta with Wydad in 2017.[11] In December 2022, Regragui was nominated for the 2022 IFFHS World's Best Club Coach for his performance in the year in review with Wydad before becoming head coach of the Moroccan national team.[12] He was subsequently adjudged the third best behind Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola.[13]

Return to Morocco

On 31 August 2022, Regragui was appointed as the new head coach for the Morocco national football team after the dismissal of former head coach Vahid Halilhodžić.[14][15] Critics were unhappy with Regragui's appointment and derisively nicknamed him "avocado head".[16] On 21 September 2022, Regragui coached his first friendly game, which ended in a 1–0 victory against Madagascar.[17]

In the 2022 FIFA World Cup, he led Morocco to the knockout stage for the first time since 1986,[18] and to the quarter finals after beating Spain on penalties in the round of 16,[19] making Morocco the fourth African nation and the first Arab nation to qualify for this stage in a World Cup competition.[20][16] Regragui himself is the first African manager, and first Arab manager to reach this stage. Morocco would later beat favourite[21][22] Portugal 1–0 and move on to the semi-finals,[23] not only another first for Morocco, but also making them the first African team, and first Arab team to qualify for the semi-finals.[24][25] However, they lost to France in the semi-final 2–0 on 14 December.[26] Afterward, they finished in fourth place with a 2–1 loss against Croatia.[27] After the World Cup concluded, Regragui was nominated for the 2022 IFFHS World's Best National Coach award.[28] He placed third behind World Cup winning coach Lionel Scaloni and runner-up Didier Deschamps.[29][30]

Managerial statistics
As of match played 17 December 2022[31]
Team From To Record
GWDLWin %
FUS 1 June 2014 22 January 2020 234 95 84 55 040.60
Al-Duhail 22 January 2020 3 October 2020 20 13 1 6 065.00
Wydad AC 10 August 2021 29 July 2022 48 31 10 7 064.58
Morocco 31 August 2022 Present 10 5 3 2 050.00
Total 312 144 98 70 046.15

Honours

Player

Ajaccio

Morocco

Manager

FUS

Al-Duhail

Wydad AC

Individual

  • Best Coach in Botola: 2015–16,[39] 2021–22[40]

References
  1. "Squad List: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: Morocco (MAR)" (PDF). FIFA. 9 December 2022. p. 19. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  2. "Walid Regragui". L'Équipe (in French). Paris. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  3. "Morocco – Record International Players". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  4. "Morocco beat Portugal to make World Cup history". BBC Sport. 10 December 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  5. "Walid Regragui". L'Équipe (in French). Paris. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  6. Excitement building in Morocco. FIFA. 27 August 2009.
  7. FUS Rabat sign new coach Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Magharebia. 9 May 2014.
  8. "COMMUNIQUE DU FATH UNION SPORT" (in French). 22 January 2020.
  9. "الركراكي يوقع عقود انضمامه للوداد الرياضي كمدرب للفريق الأوّل" [Regragui signs his contracts with Wydad as coach of the first team.]. elbotola.com (in Arabic). Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  10. "El Moutaraji double delivers third TotalEnergies CAF Champions League title to Wydad". CAFOnline.com. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  11. "الركراكي ثاني مدرب مغربي يتوج بلقب دوري أبطال أفريقيا". elbotola.com (in Arabic). Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  12. "IFFHS MEN'S WORLD BEST CLUB COACH 2022 - TOP 15". IFFHS. 24 December 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  13. "IFFHS AWARDS 2022 - MEN'S WORLD BEST CLUB COACH". IFFHS. 9 January 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  14. "Walid Regragui confirmed as new Atlas Lions coach". HESPRESS English – Morocco News. 31 August 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  15. "Morocco appoint Walid Regragui as head coach". ESPN. 1 September 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  16. Amir, Shady (7 December 2022). "Mr Avocado Head has Morocco daring to dream". Reuters. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  17. "الركراكي يحقق أول فوز مع منتخب المغرب". Hespress – هسبريس جريدة إلكترونية مغربية (in Arabic). 21 September 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  18. "Morocco cruise past Canada to make World Cup last 16 for first time since 1986". The National News. 1 December 2022.
  19. "Morocco beat Spain in penalties to reach Quarter finals". Africa News. 6 December 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  20. "World Cup 2022: Morocco heads to quarter finals, eliminating Spain on penalties". Middle East Eye. 6 December 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  21. "Morocco vs Portugal - Betting Odds". Oddschecker. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 11 December 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  22. Khalil, Shaimaa (11 December 2022). "World Cup 2022: 'We witnessed history as Morocco won'". BBC News. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  23. "Morocco 1–0 Portugal". FIFA. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  24. Byrne, Cal; Arun, Shubhankar; Child, David; Geiger, Dorian (10 December 2022). "Morocco vs Portugal 1-0: World Cup 2022 – as it happened". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  25. Quinn, Andrew (10 December 2022). "'Continental history': How the world reacted to Morocco's victory over Portugal – and Ronaldo's tears". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  26. "France 2–0 Morocco". FIFA. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  27. "Croatia 2–1 Morroco". FIFA. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  28. Rahhou, Jihane. "Morocco's Walid Regragui Nominated for 2022 Best Coach Award". moroccoworldnews. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
  29. "IFFHS Awards 2022: Morocco's Regragui World 3rd Best National Coach | MapNews". www.mapnews.ma. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  30. "IFFHS AWARDS 2022 - MEN'S WORLD BEST NATIONAL COACH". IFFHS. 8 January 2023. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  31. "نهاية مشوار المدرب وليد الركراكي مع الدحيل". استاد الدوحة (in Arabic). 30 September 2020.
  32. "AC Ajaccio".
  33. "African Nations Cup 2004". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.
  34. https://m.footballdatabase.eu/fr/joueur/details/652-walid-regragui
  35. https://m.footballdatabase.eu/fr/joueur/details/652-walid-regragui
  36. https://m.footballdatabase.eu/fr/joueur/details/652-walid-regragui
  37. https://m.footballdatabase.eu/fr/joueur/details/652-walid-regragui
  38. "Morocco select Regragui to lead them into a new sporting era". Atalayar. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  39. "الركراكي أفضل مدرب مغربي لسنة 2015".
  40. "Wydad : Regragui désigné Meilleur coach du Botola".
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