World Cup 2022: Vahid Halilhodzic hits out at Morocco again

"Well done and thanks to Vahid. He did his job on his side, we played with the group he built. I came in with my own mentality, but the backbone of the squad I had to leave alone. The players followed me, they are the ones who gave everything." Walid Regragui has not forgotten the work of his predecessor on the Atlas Lions bench, Vahid Halilhodzic. After the historic run he delivered with Morocco at the 2022 World Cup, he therefore struck a less than kind tone towards the French-Serbian coach, who managed the Morocco national team for three years. But those words failed to soften Vahid's anger. He still cannot stomach being sacked two months before the tournament. Especially as the same thing had already happened to him with Ivory Coast in 2010 and Japan in 2018. Each time, he was cast as the villain.

During the World Cup, Vahid Halilhodzic had already voiced his bitterness in an interview with the French website So Foot. And this weekend, it is in a Croatian newspaper that he has again let his distress show. "It's hard for me to say anything. And these words cannot erase my bitterness, and they cannot make up for what I missed out on with this tournament," he complained. The former CAF Champions League winner with Raja Casablanca goes even further. "They took my pride away from me," he says. "I can't forget that, or forgive them. Because it should also have been my farewell to coaching." At 70, coach Vahid also says he has received plenty of offers to manage. But for now, he prefers to shake off this blow.