{"id":23672,"date":"2022-12-16T19:43:26","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T19:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success"},"modified":"2022-12-16T20:32:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T20:32:55","slug":"nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success","title":{"rendered":"Nya\u2019: How Morocco has been galvanised by World Cup success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>There is one thing everyone in Morocco has on their minds since the football team\u2019s victory against Portugal: a World Cup trophy. It\u2019s something the population of 37 million feels more than declares.<\/p>\n

The streets of the Moroccan capital, Rabat, look like any administrative metropolis on a weekday. Its fast-paced, goal-oriented populace race from one end to another, its streets packed with customers, workers and pigeons in search of the day\u2019s meal.<\/p>\n

And yet, ask anyone and Morocco\u2019s collective obsession over the World Cup and the nation\u2019s historic rise in it comes out. \u201cSeriously, we have gotten so far, how could we not go farther,\u201d 18-year-old Ahmad Alami told Al Jazeera, speaking alongside his friends who nodded in blind agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cNya,\u201d Alami\u2019s friend Ayman Alouchi implored.<\/p>\n

\u201cNya\u201d is a word that thrummed in the mind of all Moroccans ever since this World Cup fairytale began with the shock wins over Belgium, Canada, Spain and Portugal. It translates to \u201chave faith\u201d but tells the team to \u201cdo your part and have faith in God\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNya\u201d became a popularly used expression when Morocco\u2019s coach Walid Regragui first referred to it in a pre-match World Cup press conference ahead of the match against Belgium. The win saw the trust in Regragui\u2019s leadership, and his calls for faith, emerge as a symbol of Moroccans\u2019 loyal support for the national team.<\/p>\n

The expression is now affirmed by politicians, media, fans and people from all walks of life to represent Morocco\u2019s historic and unexpected rise to the ranks of football giants.<\/p>\n

The word, now synonymous with Morocco in the World Cup, has reached such magnitude that the country\u2019s ministry of religious affairs, one of the bodies closest to the Royal Palace, broadcast on Tuesday a message asking Moroccans to increase their \u201cnya\u201d.<\/p>\n

The kinetic excitement is shared across the country\u2019s public institutions. In Parliament, a session dedicated to discussing the country\u2019s severe drought on Monday turned to messages of congratulations, wishes of success and mostly prideful monologues by MPs on what it means to be Moroccan.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the feeling spread across the nation\u2019s rural and urban, rich and poor, developed and deprived to unite a people who for the last years suffered one blow after another.<\/p>\n

The pandemic and now a drought in the making has set costs of life soaring high, but for 34-year-old merchant Amina El Ouafi, Morocco\u2019s presence at a World Cup semifinal is a step out of mundane life for her and her children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been so long that I was able to do something nice for my children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can barely cover our monthly expenses, but I told myself why not \u2013 I will do it now,\u201d she added, before describing the bright red and green shirts she bought for her six and 12-year-old ahead of the semifinal.<\/p>\n

They cost her a day\u2019s worth of food. Ouafi spoke near a cafe\u0301 in central Rabat where a group of senior citizens were playing checkers. \u201cBy God\u2019s will, you will not be disappointed,\u201d a man in the group addressed her.<\/p>\n

She turned and smiled, hands lifted in prayer \u2013 a gesture that has now become common among Moroccans, who, while known to be a friendly bunch, have turned their friendliness up a couple more notches as their team progresses in the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The man who addressed her, 71-year-old Ali Maarouf, said that being able to witness Wednesday\u2019s game was a gift from God. \u201cYou know, if he doesn\u2019t take me by tomorrow,\u201d he said, giggling.<\/p>\n

Maarouf, who is suffering from heart disease and is partially blind said that, for lack of a better alternative, he would follow the game on the radio.<\/p>\n

Morocco\u2019s state-owned TV channels have been unable to show the Atlas Lions World Cup matches but authorities, since Sunday, rushed to install large screens in city squares to enable citizens to follow the Atlas Lion\u2019s match against France in the semifinal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would not matter if we win or lose. I\u2019m just really happy we could reach such a high.<\/p>\n

It feels like the perfect way to close the year, to look forward to what\u2019s to come and to have a renewed sense of unity,\u201d 31-year-old Smail Lahmidi, whose car is decorated in Morocco\u2019s iconic red and green, said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. There is one thing everyone in Morocco has on their minds since the football team\u2019s victory against Portugal: a World Cup trophy. It\u2019s something the population of 37 million feels more than declares. The streets of the Moroccan capital, Rabat, look like any administrative metropolis on a weekday. Its fast-paced, goal-oriented populace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,245,241,514],"class_list":["post-23672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-mauritius","tag-world-cup"],"yoast_head":"\nNya\u2019: How Morocco has been galvanised by World Cup success - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is one thing everyone in Morocco has on their minds since the football team\u2019s victory against Portugal: a World Cu ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nya\u2019: How Morocco has been galvanised by World Cup success\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is one thing everyone in Morocco has on their minds since the football team\u2019s victory against Portugal: a World Cu ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-16T19:43:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-16T20:32:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1671207400.25.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Nya\u2019: How Morocco has been galvanised by World Cup success\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-16T19:43:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-16T20:32:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success\"},\"wordCount\":754,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1671207400.25.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritius\",\"World Cup\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/nya-how-morocco-has-been-galvanised-by-world-cup-success\",\"name\":\"Nya\u2019: How Morocco has been galvanised by World Cup success - 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