Coach Walid Regragui stated on Thursday that Sofiane Diop, a former France under-21 international, has accepted a maiden call-up from Morocco for the commencement of their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign this month.

The 23-year-old Nice midfielder Diop is eligible for both Morocco and France. Morocco advanced to the World Cup semifinals in Qatar and signed winger Amine Adli from Bayer Leverkusen, another French junior international.

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“Diop is a player that has the option to select several nations. Regragui told reporters, “He deserves to be with us.”

In their opening qualifying match, Morocco is set to play Eritrea on Thursday.

Regragui stated that they had not heard anything from FIFA on Eritrea’s potential withdrawal from the preliminary round, despite reports to the contrary.

For their second game, the Atlas Lions will travel to Tanzania on November 21.

In their pool, they also have Zambia, Niger, and the Congo.

Only the top team advances automatically to the finals in the US, Mexico, and Canada.

Morocco squad:

Goalkeepers:

Yassine Bounou, Munir El Kajoui, El Mehdi Benabid

Defenders:

Ghanem Saiss, Nayef Aguerd, Abdelkabir Abqar, Yunis Abdelhamid, Achraf Hakimi, Ayoub El Amloud, Noussair Mazraoui, Yahya Attiat Allah

Midfielders:

Sofyan Amrabat, Azzedine Ounahi, Yahya Jabrane, Ismael Saibari, Bilal El Khannouss, Amir Richardson

Forwards:

Hakim Ziyech, Sofiane Diop, Amine Harit, Youssef En-Nesyri, Tarik Tissoudali, Ayoub El Kaabi, Amine Adli, Abdessamad Ezzalzouli