Chelsea winger, Hakim Ziyech was left out of the team that represented Morocco in the 33rd edition of AFCON despite his club form
By Dami Oshodi
Chelsea playmaker, Hakim Ziyech, has said that he will no longer play for the Moroccan football team.
The 28-year-old made it known on Tuesday when he spoke to some reporters in Abu Dhabi, where he is with the Chelsea squad for the FIFA Club World Cup.
His announcement is coming two months after the former Ajax man was left out of coach Vahid Halilhadzic’s Morocco squad for the 2022 AFCON, which was reported by TheNiche in December.
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Before his AFCON snub, Hakim Ziyech had missed all six of his country’s 2022 World Cup qualifying matches and has not played for the Atlas Lions since a 1-0 victory in a friendly match against Burkina Faso on July 12, 2021.
Ziyech has reportedly had a fallout with head coach Halilhadzic. In September last year, the latter explained that he left the Chelsea winger out of the squad for the World Cup qualifiers games against Sudan and Guinea due to the “unacceptable behaviour” that he put up during the last international break.
Ziyech was originally eligible to play for the Netherlands or Morocco at international level. He chose to play for the latter, making his debut in 2015, and has since won 41 caps for the North African side, representing Morocco at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.