Belhanda faults Regragui for staying silent after dropping him

“Be a man”: Younès Belhanda says Walid Regragui never explained why he was omitted from Morocco’s squad for the 2022 World Cup. The former international says he still feels anger and bitterness towards the former coach, whom he blames for a decision that kept him out of the tournament in Qatar. Morocco reached the semi-finals of the competition.

Belhanda, who has 59 international appearances for Morocco and currently plays for Al-Sailiya, summed up the resentment that remains: “To this day, I still hold a grudge against Walid Regragui… I didn’t understand.” He made the comments on the programme “Riolo Club”. His remarks are not only about missing out on selection: in his account, they also reflect his confusion over how the decision was communicated — or, rather, the lack of a conversation afterwards.

The former Montpellier player says not being selected was not, in itself, what affected him most. After the final squad was announced, he tried to call the coach but received no answer. He says he wanted a straightforward explanation. “The day the squad was announced, I called him, but he didn’t answer. I only wanted an explanation. Be a man and tell me: ‘Younès, I make my own decisions.’ I wasn’t fifteen any more, but thirty-two. I would have understood, and it would have been easier for me to accept.”

The hurt is sharper, he says, because he had previously shared a close relationship with Regragui. Belhanda says he had gone two years without a Morocco call-up before his former assistant coach brought him back into the national team shortly before the World Cup. They spoke often, he recalled, and the return had given him hope. The contrast between that closeness and the lack of contact after he was dropped lies at the heart of his complaint. He says there was “not even a single call” and describes the episode as deeply painful, adding that he has not recovered from it. He also stressed that the disappointment did not destroy him, although it affected him profoundly.

The resentment also changed his relationship with the national team’s results. Speaking about Morocco’s run in Qatar, Belhanda admitted that he had stopped taking an interest and did not even watch the matches. He also discussed the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final against Senegal: he watched it, he said, but did not follow it as he used to follow Morocco’s games. For Belhanda, that distance shows how far the bitterness over his omission had reached.