RABAT: Coach Herve Renard made one switch to his provisional squad on Monday when he brought Malaga striker Youssef En-Nesyri into Morocco’s final World Cup 23.
The 21-year-old Malaga forward was a backup on the original list but he has taken the place of Badr Benoun, a 24-year-old defender with Raja de Casablanca.
Renard dropped another backup, Noussair Mazraoui of Ajax, but kept Oualid El-Hajjam, a defender with Amiens in France, as a reserve, leaving him a squad of 24.
The list only contains two players from Morocco’s domestic league.
The Atlas Lions are led by Mehdi Benatia, the Juventus defender involved in a controversial penalty incident as the Turin club lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League in April.
Morocco, who have been training at Crans-Montana in the Swiss Alps, have two more warmup games, against Slovakia on Monday and against Estonia in Talinn on Saturday. They are unbeaten in their last 15 matches and last tasted defeat against Cameron last year.
In their first World Cup in 20 years, Morocco are in Group B at the World Cup and kick off against Iran in Saint Petersburg in June 15 before facing Portugal and Spain.
Morocco’s World Cup squad:
Goalkeepers: Mounir El-Kajoui (Numancia/ESP), Yassine Bounou (Girona/ESP), Ahmad Reda Tagnaouti (Ittihad Tanger)
Defenders: Medhi Benatia (Juventus/ITA), Romain Saiss (Wolves/ENG), Manuel Da Costa (Istanbul Basaksehir/TUR), Nabil Dirar (Fenerbahce/TUR), Achraf Hakimi (Real Madrid/ESP), Hamza Mendyl (Lille/FRA)
Midfielders: M’barek Boussoufa (Al Jazira/UAE), Karim El-Ahmadi (Feyenoord/NED), Youssef Ait Bennasser (Caen/FRA), Sofyan Amrabat (Feyenoord/NED), Younes Belhanda (Galatasaray/TUR), Faycal Fajr (Getafe/ESP), Amine Harit (Schalke/GER)
Forwards: Khalid Boutaib (Yeni Malatyaspor/TUR), Aziz Bouhaddouz (St. Pauli/GER), Ayoub El-Kaabi (RS Berkane), Mehdi Carcela (Standard Liege/BEL), Hakim Ziyech (Ajax/NED), Nordin Amrabat (Leganes/ESP), Youssef En-Nesyri (Malaga, ESP).
