From the point of view of the yellow-green fans, the first game of Group C of the World Cup raised questions about Carlo Ancelotti’s choices and the performance of Brazil’s players. From the point of view of Moroccan fans and also from the view of those who watched the duel from a distance, Ayyoub Bouaddi’s performance stood out.
The 18-year-old was by far the most imposing figure in the midfield battles. In the 1-1 draw on Saturday (13), in East Rutherford, with the vitality corresponding to his age and a surprising calmness for a newcomer in a World Cup environment, he left the game bigger than he entered.
“It wasn’t any risk,” said coach Mohamed Ouahbi, impassively, about the boy’s selection. “I only look at the athletes’ performance, not their age. He could be 35. If he’s well, he plays. The same would be true if he were 17. We were sure he would have a great game. We knew. So, it wasn’t any risk. Against Brazil, it wasn’t the type of game to take risks.”
The statement could suggest that Ouahbi, who led the Moroccan under-20 team until March, has a well-established relationship with the youngster. It turns out that Bouaddi played for France at youth level and only last month joined the Moroccan team, after a long negotiation.
Born in Senlis, in northern France, the player is one of the many children of the African diaspora. Like his most famous teammates, Achraf Hakimi and Brahim Díaz, both born in Spain, he chose to wear the shirt of his family’s country. And now he has a total of four games with the red and green uniform.
There were three friendlies before his debut in the World Cup, in which his performance presented a clear contrast to that of Casemiro. The slowness of the 34-year-old Brazilian, who was taken out on an emergency basis by Ancelotti at half-time in the match at the MetLife Stadium, was evident in clashes with Morocco’s number 6.
“Faced with Bouaddi, Casemiro’s legs seemed heavy; his reactions were slow,” analyst Ed Dove wrote on ESPN. “On the other side was an 18-year-old, the best player on the pitch. One of the two has been relegated to Manchester United’s past; the other is being tipped to be part of the Premier League’s future.”
Manchester United announced Casemiro’s goodbye last week, although he had the contractual option of a one-year renewal. Bouaddi played for Lille in the 2025/26 season, his team since the youth teams in France, and is the target of interest from several European powers, one of them United itself.
The dispute over their football, which also includes Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain, did not emerge last weekend. The midfielder has attracted attention since he debuted in Lille’s professional team at the age of 16 years and three days. On the day he turned 17, in 2024, he was decisive in the defeat of Ancelotti’s Real Madrid in the Champions League.
“The match against Brazil was one of his first in international football [de seleções]. But, in terms of experience, he has played in the French Championship, played against Real Madrid. He is 18 years old, but has a lot of experience. So I wasn’t impressed. What he did was no surprise”, repeated the Morocco coach.
A lot of statistics demonstrate Bouaddi’s omnipresence on the field and his efficiency – the specialized company Opta, for example, shows that he won nine contests in split balls. But no data shows that, at the end of the game, with the African team under pressure to get the ball out, he, even before receiving a pass from Youssef Belammari, applauded his teammate’s touch.
“He knew he had time and space to raise his arms and clap for Belammari until he touched the ball. It was a moment that perfectly captured his extremely confident performance at MetLife Stadium”, noted Conor O’Neill, on The Athletic website, from The New York Times, in a text that described his “midfield masterclass against Brazil”.
The applause was, of course, not the teenager’s most impressive move, called “brilliant” by the English newspaper The Guardian and a “phenomenon” by the Italian La Gazzetta dello Sport. But his calm personality and serene demeanor – in a journey in which much more experienced athletes from Brazil cited anxiety as an obstacle – only gave more certainty to those who put faith in him.
Bouaddi fulfills the requirements currently seen as necessary for great midfielders. With his long strides, he fills spaces and makes his presence felt from one area to another, with his flowing hair. Against the Brazilian team, according to Opta, he touched the ball 87 times – only the defenders in yellow touched it more, in sterile touches.
The number 6 made 90% of his passes and showed calm to get out of pressure situations. How calm he showed, shortly before his professional debut at Lille, to win an oratory contest at the Élysée Palace, in Paris. The First Lady of France, Brigitte Macron, was in the audience and was impressed.
The young man, who is studying for a degree in mathematics and physics, said little in East Rutherford. After the match against Brazil ended, he preferred not to demonstrate all his rhetorical skills, saying he was simply happy with the interest shown by major European clubs. It was his football that started the World Cup with a bang.
