RIYADH: When Morocco claimed the FIFA U-20 World Cup at the weekend, it was a historic landmark for football in the North African country and the wider Arab world.
The young Atlas Lions’ finest hour came courtesy of a 2-0 win over Argentina in Santiago, Chile, in the early hours of Oct. 20, with two-goal hero Yassir Zabrini announcing himself to the world as a star of the future.
Zabrini was not the only hero. The collective triumph could herald the dawn of a new generation of talent for a country who, after the senior team’s glorious march to the semifinals at Qatar 2022, can claim to be leading the way for Arab football on the international stage.
What made the success in Chile even sweeter was that Morocco’s youngsters exacted revenge for their swashbuckling elders.
In the semifinal, the youngsters defeated France — who ended the senior side’s dream at the same stage in Qatar three years ago — and then wrapped up the title against Argentina, the team that the senior class of 2022 would have faced had they reached the final.
There will be caution in some quarters not to overreact. Tunisia in 1978; Algeria in 1982; Kuwait and Iraq in the 1970s; ֱ in the 1980s and ’90s; and, above all others, Morocco in 2022. All have produced teams that have gone down in football folklore before.
Arabs lauded these golden generations in the past and hung their hopes on them to fearlessly go toe-to-toe with the world’s best, only to be disappointed when they eventually failed to progress at World Cups or sustain a period of excellence.
But could the region now be witnessing the start of a golden age of Arab football?
Morocco’s latest success came at the end of two weeks that could turn out to be a turning point for Arab football.
Just days before their U-20 victory came the confirmation that seven Arab countries had qualified to play at the 2026 World Cup, to be held jointly by the US, Mexico, and Canada.
Playoff-bound Iraq and the UAE could yet make that eight. Already this is by some way a record for Arab teams, albeit at an expanded World Cup of 48 teams, with the previous best being four participants in Russia in 2018 and again in Qatar.
Jordan became the first to confirm their spot in June, not only achieving a historic first qualification, but also becoming the first new Arab nation to reach the World Cup finals since ֱ debuted at USA 94.
Returning Frenchman Herve Renard secured his second qualification with ֱ last Tuesday with a 0-0 draw with Iraq, and on the same night Qatar beat the UAE 2-1 to claim a second World Cup appearance in a row.
In the African qualifiers, Morocco cruised to qualification in early September and were then followed by previous World Cup pioneers Tunisia, Egypt, and Algeria last week.
After Morocco’s remarkable run in Qatar, as well as ֱ’s sensational win over eventual winner Argentina in the group stages, Arab teams will be emboldened to aim for at least the knockout stages — not just there to make up numbers.
To add to a stellar week for Arab football, ֱ star and hero of that win against Lionel Messi and co, Salem Al-Dawsari, was named Asia’s best footballer.
It was the second time he has won the award and the seventh time it has gone to a Saudi footballer since the inaugural award was claimed by Saeed Al-Owairan in 1994.
It means Al-Dawsari and Qatar’s Akram Afif — who finished second this year — have shared the accolade in its last four editions. In fact, the last non-Arab winner was China’s Zheng Chi in 2013.
At club level, too, Arab teams have dominated in Asia and Africa. ֱ’s Al-Ahli claimed a first AFC Champions League Elite title this year, making it four Arab winners in the past six years, including fellow Saudi club Al-Hilal (2018, 2021) and the UAE’s Al-Ain (2024).
This represents a major power shift from East to West Asia. The previous 13 years had produced only one Arab winner of the trophy, Qatar’s Al-Sadd in 2011, with Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean teams in the ascendency at the time.
The first edition of the AFC Champions League 2 was won by the UAE’s Sharjah this year, and it will be a major surprise if Cristiano Ronaldo and Al-Nassr, no doubt stung by not taking part in the Elite competition, do not claim the second edition at the end of the 2025-2026 season.
This year, Pyramids, the new disruptors in Egyptian football, claimed a first CAF Champions League trophy after beating South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns FC 3-2 on aggregate in the two-legged final.
It is the ninth year in a row that Africa’s premier club competition has gone to an Arab team, with Egypt’s Al-Ahly winning the trophy four times. Morocco’s Wydad and ES Tunis claimed two each. It is a level of dominance that exceeds even that being shown by Arab teams in Asia.
However, perhaps nothing has turned attention to Arab football in recent years as much as the revolution that swept through Saudi domestic football.
Already one of the Arab world’s strongest competitions, the Saudi Pro League has, since Ronaldo’s arrival in Riyadh three years ago and the subsequent influx of foreign stars, climbed to a level never before seen in the Arab world.
In June, Ronaldo decided to continue his mission with Al-Nassr and, not for the first time, lauded the current standard of a league he helped bring about.
“Of course, we are still improving, but I believe that at this moment we are in the top five (leagues in the world) already,” he said in a video message on Al-Nassr’s official X account.
“I still believe that we will continue to improve, and we have time, and we have shown in the last two years that the league is going up all the time.”
With the likes of Portuguese forward Joao Felix and French serial trophy-winner Kingsley Coman joining an already stellar Al-Nassr squad in the summer, the Riyadh giants have looked unstoppable in the SPL so far this season.
A first league title since 2019 would be Ronaldo’s crowning glory in ֱ. Should that happen, expect the world to tune in to the season’s final in numbers an Arab league could scarcely have dreamt of in the past.
The next decade is stacked with elite international football tournaments in the two countries leading the renaissance in Arab football.
At the end of this year the Africa Cup of Nations takes place in Morocco, potentially a trial run for co-hosting the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal.
Likewise, ֱ will host the 2027 AFC Asian Cup for the first time, before crowning an era of unprecedented growth in the game by being the lone host of the 2034 World Cup.
It might seem unthinkable now, but by that time, the region could just be speaking of golden achievements in Arab football in a literal sense.
