ATLANTA, July 7 (Reuters) - Morocco coach Mohamed Ouahbi is already a World Cup-winner, but his success was at junior level and he is treading new ground in the senior ranks as his side prepare to take on France in Thursday's quarter-final.
It has been a remarkable accession for the 49-year-old, born in Belgium to Moroccan parents and another example of the wealth of talent the North African can draw on from the diaspora.
Ouahbi was coach of the Morocco side that won last October’s Under-20 World Cup in Chile, ironically eliminating France at the semi-final stage.
The success made him a potential candidate to replace Walid Regragui when the Morocco coach quit after the Africa Cup of Nations in January, but the 49-year-old Ouahbi was expected to be down the pecking order.
Counting against him was a lack of experience as a senior head coach, but he got the job and has since proven wrong those who doubted he could make the transition from the juniors.
Ouahbi hails from Schaerbeek, the industrial suburb northeast of Brussels, and at 21 began as the under-nines coach at Anderlecht. He rose through the ranks to eventually become assistant to former Albanian international Besnik Hasi in 2016.
But it proved a short tenure and when Hasi was fired, Ouahbi returned to the youth ranks, working with talent at Anderlecht like current Belgium players Jeremy Doku and Youri Tielemans plus Bilal El Khannouss, who features in Morocco’s midfield.
“I have to say that he was not only a good youth coach but also a man of strong values and principles," Jean Kindermans, who was in charge of Anderlecht's youth development for years, told Belgian media.
Ouahbi left the club in 2021 after 17 years. “Anderlecht has had many great players trained under Mo, who went on to enjoy brilliant careers abroad,” Anderlecht wrote in a tribute.
He joined Al Fateh in Saudi Arabia, where he served as assistant coach to former Anderlecht colleague Yannick Ferrera before, four years ago, joining the Morocco federation and taking charge of their junior ranks.
"He is an incredibly good motivator," Kindermans added.
"I think that is one of his strengths today, dealing with all those superstars, something he never was as a player himself. To command their respect, there has to be something like motivation and that is something he is capable of."
Thursday's quarter-final will be Ouahbi’s 11th game in charge since his March appointment. Morocco have won six and drawn four of the previous 10 in an unbeaten run that has seen him feted for tactical changes that have improved the side.
"He sticks to his own style of play and isn't dictated to by the opposition. When Morocco play now, we have our own identity," says the country's former international Youssouf Hadji, one of the team assistants.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Atlanta; Editing by Ken Ferris)
