Left out by former head coach Walid Regragui for the 2022 World Cup, Younès Belhanda, midfielder at Al-Sailiya (Qatar), says he still holds it against him. A guest on the Riolo Club on RMC, the Morocco international claims the coach never gave him an explanation.
The affair dates back to the 2022 World Cup, for which Younès Belhanda was not selected. A guest on the Riolo Club on RMC, the Moroccan midfielder of Al-Sailiya looks back on that omission, an episode he says he has not got over. He claims he still holds it against Walid Regragui, the man who left him out of the squad without giving him an explanation.
According to RMC Sport, the Morocco international was 32 at the time and had gone two years without a call-up. He claims he was close to Regragui, his former assistant, and that Regragui called him just before the World Cup, a sign that had given him hope again.
A silence that became a wound
On the day the squad was announced, Belhanda says he tried to reach the coach. “On the day of the list I call him and he doesn’t answer. Just give an explanation. You’re a man, you tell me: ‘Younès, I’m making choices.’ I’m not 15. I was 32. I would have understood and I would have got over it. But not a call, nothing! It was very painful. I haven’t got over it,” he told RMC Sport.
He says it bluntly: “To this day I hold it against him. I didn’t understand.” Walid Regragui has not publicly responded at this stage.
The World Cup, a memory shut out
The episode is all the more striking given that Morocco reached the semi-finals of the World Cup, losing 2-0 to France. Belhanda says he did not watch the tournament. “I didn’t care. I wasn’t even watching,” he told RMC Sport.
According to his statements, he only took an interest in the Atlas Lions again after Regragui left his post as head coach.
Other matters on the table
The interview was not limited to the World Cup: Belhanda also spoke about the final of the last Africa Cup of Nations against Senegal and Brahim Diaz’s penalty, according to RMC Sport.