Walid Regragui nominated for the 2022 Best Coach Award

Morocco’s national football team Manager Walid Regragui is in the run for the 2022 Best Coach award from the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS).

Regragui was included to the IFFHS Men’s World Top Club Coach 2022 shortlist along with some of the best managers in the world, including Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. There are 15 candidates on the list.

The nomination follows the coach’s noteworthy World Cup accomplishment this year, when he became the first coach to take an African or Arab team all the way to the semifinals.

Only three months before to the start of the World Cup, Regragui was given the team’s managerial duties. He received plaudits for creating one of the competition’s top defenses and inspiring his players.

Vahid Halilhodzic, a Bosnian-French coach who later joined the Moroccan football team, was widely held responsible for Morocco’s disappointing performance.

The Bosnian was also well-known for his on-going disputes with some of Morocco’s top players, such as Hakim Ziyech, who first gave up playing for Morocco but subsequently joined the squad once Regragui took over as head coach.

Regragui rose to fame and was hailed as a hero after the team’s outstanding showing in the FIFA World Cup. The Moroccan King Mohammed VI even decorated him with the Order of the Throne.

FIFA stated in a statement that Regragui was “Morocco’s hero at Qatar 2022,” noting that he carried out “an excellent game plan” and quickly restored the team’s balance.

FIFA said in the same statement that Regragui “unified everyone, restored stability to the dressing room, and healed the gaps in the team that had arisen before to his arrival.”