After his team finished fourth in Qatar, Morocco coach Walid Regragui predicted that an African team will win the World Cup over the next “15 to 20 years.”

The Atlas Lions, who made history by becoming the first ever African World Cup semifinalist team, fell to Croatia 2-1 in the third-place playoff on Saturday, but they still captivated Qatar’s attention.

Africa will receive at least nine berths, up from five, at the 2026 World Cup, which will be staged in the USA, Canada, and Mexico and feature 48 teams.

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“With nine participants, we’re going to learn.

“In 15, 20 years, I’m sure an African team will win the World Cup because we’ll have learned,” said Regragui.

“We have a stage to get past. We need to build on that, with hard work and desire. This DNA is not just being built for Morocco, but for the continent.”

After finishing first in a group that featured third-place finishers Belgium and Croatia from the 2018 World Cup, Morocco advanced to the round of 16 after defeating Spain and Portugal.

The defending champions, France, terminated their run in the quarterfinals, but Regragui has pushed his team to build on their historic performance by winning the Africa Cup of Nations the following year.

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“I said to the players in the changing room, if you want to go down in history then you’re going to have to win the Africa Cup of Nations,” said Regragui.

“We need to dominate our continent.”
Morocco have been crowned African champions just once, in 1976, but their performances at the World Cup demonstrated they are a team on the rise under Regragui, who was only appointed in August.

“Tomorrow (today)morning we’ll take stock and all realise we’ve pulled off a fantastic achievement here.

“We’ve earned a great deal of experience in a short space of time,” said Regragui.

“We’ve gone further than expected but it’s not enough.

” It needs to set an example for the future. I hope that everybody (in Africa) will learn from the experience.

“We’ve got a great future ahead of us and we’ll keep moving forward.

“Of course we have the objective of winning the World Cup one day.

“There’s going to be more pressure on us going forward and hopefully there will be more African teams following our example.

“We’ve shown we can go toe to toe with top teams. Really very small details determine these games.”