MOROCCO is currently completing the preparations for the 35th African Cup of Nations (AFCON) to be held from Saturday, January 5-26, next year.
This is the second time for Morocco to host this biggest football tournament in Africa.
The first time was in 1988 and stumbled in the semi-finals after losing 1-0 to Cameroon who came to win the cup by beating Nigeria 1-0 in the final.
Morocco, which has represented Africa six times in the World Cup finals, will play in the AFCON finals for the 20th time.
It was often given the chance to lift the trophy, but ended the journey in the quarter or semi-finals and once in the final in 2004 by losing to Tunisia 2-1.
Now Morocco is determined to ensure that the cup remains with them and among the steps it took is to involve former talented players in the preparations.
In the 1960s to the early 1990s, Morocco was renowned as the leading football nation in Africa.
Until the beginning of this century, it was a dream to expect Morocco to be defeated by a country south of the Sahara, as it was beaten 3-1 by Tanzania in the race for a ticket to play in the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.
Among its many brilliant players in the past is the first player from Africa, Larbi Ben Barek (known as the Black Diamond) to play in European leagues.
Now more than 60 years have passed since Ben Barek made history with another Moroccan citizen, Adderrahmane Belmahjoub, who was the first player from Africa to play in the World Cup finals with the French team in the 1954 finals held in Switzerland.
The list of famous Moroccan players of the past is long and among the brightest are Badou Zaki, Noureddine Naybet, Tarek Dhiab, Hammad Agrebi, (The Magician), Nejib Gommidh, Ahmed, Badou Kaki and Abdelmajid Dolmy.
The player who has made a big contribution to Morocco's success in recent years is the famous midfielder, Mohammed Khalid Timoumi, who is now the main consultant of the Moroccan squad preparing for next year's AFCON finals.
In previous years, the midfielder remained in the middle of the pitch, the striker froze in front near the opponent's goal, even when the team was overloaded and did not approach the center of the pitch.
Among the few midfielders who crossed the line that divides the stadium into two parts is Timoumi who was voted by many votes as the best African football player in 1985.
The only Moroccan player who preceded him with the honor was Ahmed Faras in 1975 and was followed later by Badou Zaki (1986) and Mustapha Hadji (1998).
Timoumi with a height of 6 feet and 2 inches and a tall body, played football with certainty and confidence at the national and international level for more than 20 years. Every time he got older, he became stronger.
He is remembered for playing in West Germany, Portugal, England and Poland and enabling Morocco to enter the second round of the 1986 World Cup finals held in Mexico.
Morocco lost 1-0 to West Germany in the first game, beat Portugal 3-1 and drew with England.
In their game with Poland, they came out of the solution and moved forward and wrote a new page in the history of the World Cup by being the first African country to pass the first round of the finals of this tournament.
As a midfielder and captain of Morocco, Timoumi will never be forgotten by the Portuguese for doing a great job witnessed by Abderrazik Khairi scoring two goals that enabled Morocco to beat Portugal 3-1. The results of that game are considered to this day as historic.
To this day, former Portuguese players say they never forget the day they called 'Black Day'. After the result of the game, Portuguese newspapers came up with headlines like “You can't believe it, Portugal is in a big disaster” and 'Poor Portugal'.
Speaking recently about the event of the 1986 World Cup finals, Timoumi said: “When we were in Mexico we carried three bags and each one was heavy. First was to protect our honor as players, secondly to represent Morocco and thirdly to show that the time has passed for disrespecting Africa in football . I'm thankful we succeeded.”
Mohamed Timoumi was born in the city of Rabat, Morocco, on January 15, 1960. After playing for local clubs, he joined the FAR club in Rabat.
He stayed with it for more than 10 years and enabled it to become a champion club many times and was part of the Moroccan team that participated in the 1984 Olympics.
Playing as a midfielder, Timoumi cooperated well with attackers Abdelkarim 'Fery' Krimau and Bourdeballa and goalkeeper Badou Zaki who was chosen by the FIFA Football Federation as the best African goalkeeper of the last century.
This goalkeeper was famous for stopping the seemingly unstoppable shots from shaking the Moroccan nets.
Timoumi also played for European clubs, including Lokeren of Belgium and Murcia of Spain at different times.
In 2006, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) chose Timoumi as one of the best players on this continent in the past 50 years.
After Morocco failed to enter the finals of the World Cup held in South Africa and the AFCON Cup held in Angola a few years ago, Timoumi said it was sad to see Morocco's football level drop.
“In fact, this is a shame and disgrace. Many African countries used to respect and fear us, but today we are the ones who are afraid and do not trust ourselves,” he added.
Due to this situation, he decided to teach football to young players from 11 to 15 years old and he believes that if enough efforts are made, the situation will return to the way it was in the past and he said what is needed is cooperation and commitment and not this and that excuse or blaming each other.
He gave an example of the FAR Rabat club he played for for a long time that was able to achieve great success because it nurtured young people who were later promoted after physical maturity and age.
These players played in the first team of the club and were able to give it great success with the country later.
Morocco today is the first team from Africa to qualify for the semi-finals of the World Cup, when it did so in 2022 in Qatar where it beat Portugal 1-0 with superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva and others, repeating a deep history Timoumi to tie the Portuguese, but this time writing a bigger history.
Now let's wait for his advice for the Moroccan team preparing for AFCON next year, whether it will be young or mature.
