Bouadi chooses to represent Morocco instead of France

Promising Lille midfielder Ayoub Bouadi chose to represent Morocco instead of France, less than a month before the start of the FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, according to several French media outlets.

Bouadi (18 years old) confirmed late last March that he did not want to rush into making a decision to represent Morocco or France, adding, “Until now, I have not made my decision.” Choosing a national team is certainly an important decision in any player’s career. “I need some time, and I don’t want to rush.”

The newspaper “L’Equipe” reported that after a tug of war that lasted for months between the Atlas Lions and the French national team, the Lille talent decided in recent days, with a personal decision, preferring his roots and the country of his parents.

She added that the Moroccan Football Federation finalized on Thursday the latest administrative details for Bouadi and will announce the latter’s defense in its colors in the next few hours.

For its part, RMC Sport confirmed that Bouadi decided to represent Morocco on the international scene, ending a choice that had been long awaited for several months.

Bouadi, who played ten matches with the French U-21 national team, imposed himself in the ranks of Lille despite his young age, specifically at the age of sixteen when he played his first professional match, which was in the Conference League against Klaksvik from the Faroe Islands. At that time, he became the youngest player in his club’s history to play in a professional match and in a European competition.

On October 2, 2024, his seventeenth birthday, he started in his first Champions League match, which was against Real Madrid of Spain, and played the entire match, which ended with a 1-0 victory for his team, during which he impressed everyone with the maturity of his performance and his technical accuracy, as he succeeded in 43 passes out of 44.

Since then, the Moroccan Federation, led by its president, Fawzi Lakjaa, and its former coach, Walid Regragui, has sought to include him, within the framework of its project, through which it succeeded in convincing many young talents with dual nationality in the old continent to defend the colors of their country of origin, such as Bilal Khanous, Shams Eddine Talbi, Nael El Aynaoui, Ismail Sibari, Elias Ben Saghir, Ibrahim Dias, and Issa Diop.