{"id":8131,"date":"2026-03-14T01:42:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tanja7.com\/en\/8131"},"modified":"2026-03-14T01:42:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:42:52","slug":"%f0%9f%94%a52026-world-cup-surprise-is-morocco-calling-up-french-defender-issa-diop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tanja7.com\/en\/8131","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udd252026 World Cup Surprise.. Is Morocco Calling Up French Defender Issa Diop?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Football sources have mentioned that the major surprise for the Moroccan national team in the 2026 World Cup will be the joining of French defender A\u00efssa Mandi to its ranks.<\/p>\n<p>According to the website Soccer212, which specializes in player news and transfers, the new coach <a href=\"https:\/\/tanja7.com\/183291\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mohammed Wahbi<\/a> and the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, Fouzi Lekjaa, met with representatives of A\u00efssa Mandi to discuss the possibility of including him in the national team.<\/p>\n<p>The player is 29 years old and plays for Fulham in England. He has Moroccan origins from his mother and Senegalese from his father, which makes him eligible to join Morocco despite having previously represented France in the youth categories.<\/p>\n<p>If an agreement is reached, Mandi will be a strong addition to the Moroccan defense, especially after <a href=\"https:\/\/tanja7.com\/182366\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Roman Sa\u00efss<\/a> retired and <a href=\"https:\/\/tanja7.com\/183672\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nayef Aguerd<\/a> got injured. This makes this sector in need of reinforcements before the global tournament.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tanja7.com\/183685\/\">>Content generated from the Arabic version of Tanja7.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Football sources have mentioned that the major surprise for the Moroccan national team in the 2026 World Cup will be the joining of French defender A\u00efssa Mandi to its ranks. According to the website Soccer212, which specializes in player news and transfers, the new coach Mohammed Wahbi and the president of the Royal Moroccan Football [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\ud83d\udd252026 World Cup Surprise.. Is Morocco Calling Up French Defender Issa Diop? - Tanja7 English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tanja7.com\/en\/8131\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"\ud83d\udd252026 World Cup Surprise.. Is Morocco Calling Up French Defender Issa Diop? - Tanja7 English\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Football sources have mentioned that the major surprise for the Moroccan national team in the 2026 World Cup will be the joining of French defender A\u00efssa Mandi to its ranks. According to the website Soccer212, which specializes in player news and transfers, the new coach Mohammed Wahbi and the president of the Royal Moroccan Football [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tanja7\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tanja7.com\\\/en\\\/8131#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tanja7.com\\\/en\\\/8131\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tanja7\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tanja7.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/effb4ebf2e0b9c32a577250bf6751e3e\"},\"headline\":\"\ud83d\udd252026 World Cup Surprise.. 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Is Morocco Calling Up French Defender Issa Diop? - Tanja7 English","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tanja7.com\/en\/8131","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"\ud83d\udd252026 World Cup Surprise.. Is Morocco Calling Up French Defender Issa Diop? - Tanja7 English","twitter_description":"Football sources have mentioned that the major surprise for the Moroccan national team in the 2026 World Cup will be the joining of French defender A\u00efssa Mandi to its ranks. 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