People will tell you they don’t believe in magic because, if a magician never reveals his tricks, they can’t be sure whether they’ve just witnessed something supernatural or just a clever bit of technique. Yet Hakim “The Wizard” Ziyech has spent the better part of the past decade making that distinction feel irrelevant, playing football with a kind of flair that sometimes defies the laws of gravity and leaves even the most rational observer wondering if they’ve just seen something a little beyond explanation.
A midfielder of a breed we rarely see anymore, the 32-year-old athlete has — since his modest Dutch beginnings all the way up to the World Cup’s brightest stages — carried himself with an ease that feels inherited, almost impossible to teach, making cross-pitch diagonals look like random flicks of intuition rather than the surgical interventions they really are. Closer to retirement than to his debut, the now–Wydad Casablanca midfielder — and longtime Nike athlete — has slipped into the role of big brother for a generation that grew up watching him. In a moment when Moroccan football is being praised from every angle, he has become one of its de facto ambassadors, offering perspective and a reading of the situation that feels both lived-in and distilled by time.
@milleworlddotcom We caught up with Hakim “The Wizard” Ziyech ahead of #AFCON2025 #AFCON #TOMA #FYP #morocco ♬ relaxing piano instrumental(1295343) – Futagami
Ahead of the 35th AFCON in Morocco, Nike staged TOMA, a street-football tournament, in Casablanca, where he took part in a panel, answering questions and speaking candidly about the steady ascent of the national game.
As he puts it, “If I look at the whole picture, the federation has been investing a lot— in everything around it. The people they’re bringing in for the coach, the youth coaches, the teams— it’s making it easy for the players to develop,“ he explained. “In the beginning it was going slowly, but in the last two, three years it’s been going crazy, and that’s the main reason. All the pieces of the puzzle are falling together now, and that’s amazing for the country,” he added.
Though the past three years have seen Moroccan football sweep nearly every title within reach — becoming the first Arab and African team to reach the men’s World Cup semi-finals, the first Arab team to advance beyond the round of 16 at the Women’s World Cup, winning the U20 World Cup, the Arab Cup, and much more — the AFCON remains its own, more complicated terrain. Morocco has won it only once, in 1976, and hosted it just twice. Speaking about the competition, and about how the team must be feeling heading into a tournament that has historically eluded them, he addressed the weight the players are stepping into. “There’s no excuses — they have to win it. We’re proud to host it, we’re excited in the best way, but the pressure is huge. They have to enjoy it as well and play the way they used to play. The skills you see, the celebrations, the flags —AFCON is totally different from other tournaments, especially when you’re at home,” the Dronten-born midfielder revealed, adding that he felt no frustration at not being part of this edition’s squad.
“Playing for the country is something that means a lot for us Moroccans. If you look at the national team right now, so many of the players were born and raised abroad, but they represent Morocco more than anywhere else. It’s something to be proud of,” he said, linking this sentiment to the reception he received on the day he was unveiled at Wydad, one of the Kingdom’s most decorated clubs. “It’s a feeling you can’t describe. When I walked into the stadium and saw everyone going crazy, there weren’t enough words for it — it’s something you feel in your body. It’s unbelievable. You won’t get that in Europe, that’s for sure. Here, they give you a different kind of love — the love you deserve,” he said, adding that representing the national team only deepens that bond.
Voir cette publication sur Instagram
And that’s perhaps where the so-called magic operates too; not just in the tricks or in the gravity-defying passes, but in the bond between a player and a country that refuses to break or loosen. For all the noise around results, legacies, and the weight of expectations, Ziyech still speaks from a place that feels disarmingly simple, built on pride, belonging and devotion. And as the competition has just begun — the one he describes as “totally different from other tournaments”– he seems content to watch it all unfold from a distance, trusting that the country he once carried will now carry the moment without him.
