Morocco’s star goalkeeper, Yassine Bounou

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In a historic first, Morocco have qualified to the semi-finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and is the first nation from the African and Arab world to do so. It has been widely accepted that this is due to the impressive defensive skills of the team, which is evidenced by the fact that Morocco have so far conceded no goals except an own goal against Canada and have used a tight 4-1-4-1 defensive framework throughout. Another aspect of the team that has captured attention is the goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, who is seen to smile through all matches. According to his former goalkeeping coach Christophe Revel, smiling comes naturally to Bounou, who has demonstrated his toothy grin in his performances against Spain and Portugal, and the absence of it indicates some trouble.

Bounou was born in Montreal, before returning to his native hometown of Casablanca in Morocco at the age of three, where he attended a French Secondary school. His athletic career started at Wydad Athletic Club, as an 8-year-old, where he created an impact and soon garnered attention. He then made his professional debut at the 2011 African Champions League Final against Tunisian team Esperance Sportive de Tunis and delivered an impressive performance that landed him an offer from Athletico De Madrid. He subsequently moved to Sevilla FC, where he has been since. Furthermore, at the 2021-2022 La Liga season, Bounou had a save percentage of 78 percent, which was the sixth highest in Europe, as well as the highest number of clean sheets.

According to Revel, Bounou would have been a star if he had been a member of a bigger team like Belgium or England but is only just being discovered due to Morocco being a smaller footballing nation. Bounou has also served in a leadership role at Sevilla where he plays a mentorship role for two other Moroccan players, Youssef En-Nesyri and Munir El Haddadi. Morocco’s coach Walid Regragui has also asserted that Bounou adds confidence to the team and is one of the best goalkeepers currently. Morocco is to face France in the semi-final next, where they are expected to put up a watertight defense again.