RABAT: Rival 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final coaches in Rabat on Sunday, Walid Regragui of Morocco and Pape Thiaw of Senegal have both experienced the heartbreak of losing a title decider as players.
Striker Thiaw was part of the Senegal squad that lost the 2002 AFCON final on penalties after a 0-0 draw with defending champions Cameroon.
Full-back Regragui played in the following final, two years later, which Morocco lost 2-1 to hosts Tunisia.
Senegal have played in two subsequent AFCON title deciders, losing to Algeria in 2019 and defeating Egypt on penalties three years later.
But before the 2025 AFCON, Morocco never progressed beyond the quarter-finals in eight attempts since finishing runners-up in Tunisia.
Regragui created history in 2022 when he coached Morocco to the World Cup semifinals, shocking Belgium, Spain and Portugal en route.
It was the first time an African or Arab nation had reached the last four in the quadrennial global showpiece.
What made the achievement more remarkable was Regragui had taken charge of the Atlas Lions just three months before the World Cup kicked off after Bosnian Vahid Halilhodzic was sacked.
Morocco mocked form and tradition by topping a group including Croatia and Belgium, then eliminated Spain on penalties and Portugal before falling to France.
Based on their performances in Qatar, Morocco were overwhelming favorites to win the 2024 AFCON in the Ivory Coast.
But after cruising to the round of 16, they came unstuck against South Africa. A brilliant Teboho Mokoena goal direct from a free-kick sealed a 2-0 victory for the underdogs.
Having qualified comfortably for the 2026 World Cup, Morocco are now one victory away from ending a 50-year wait for a second AFCON title after winning the 1976 tournament in Ethiopia.
“We are considered firm favorites to win this AFCON. I read that we will win the tournament comfortably. That if we do not win our campaign will be judged a failure,” Regragui told reporters.
- ‘Lacked humility’ -
“My task, and the job of my staff and the senior players, is to keep our feet on the ground and remember why Morocco has not won the AFCON for 50 years.
“We have not won the AFCON because we lacked humility in many of the tournaments and we must not fall into that trap again.
“Morocco have progressed since that loss to South Africa. The squad has been rejuvenated. We have introduced young players while retaining the experienced core of the team.
“We came into this tournament with confidence, but nothing is guaranteed,” said the 50-year-old born in a southern suburb of Paris.
Regragui was capped 44 times by Morocco during a 14-year playing career, spent mainly in France. He had two seasons with Racing Santander in Spain and one with Moghreb Tetouan in Morocco.
Before taking charge of the Atlas Lions, his major coaching achievement was leading Wydad Casablanca to victory over Egyptian giants Al Ahly in the 2022 CAF Champions League final.
After the disappointment of losing the 2002 AFCON final, Thiaw went to the World Cup in South Korea and Japan later that year.
Senegal stunned defending champions France 1-0 in the opening match and exceeded expectations by reaching the quarter-finals, where they fell to Turkiye.
Dakar-born Thiaw scored five goals in 16 national team appearances and played for clubs in France, Switzerland, Russia and Spain before retiring in 2009.
After three seasons coaching Niarry Tally, a club bankrolled by a biscuit company, he was put in charge of the Senegal team preparing for the 2023 African Nations Championship (CHAN), a competition restricted to home-based footballers.
Thiaw unexpectedly led his country to glory, defeating hosts and favorites Algeria on penalties in the final after a goalless draw.
Now 44, he succeeded Aliou Cisse as coach of the senior national team in December 2024 and has lost just once — to Brazil in a London friendly match.
Coaches Regragui and Thiaw have suffered AFCON final heartbreak
https://arab.news/8qa2h
Coaches Regragui and Thiaw have suffered AFCON final heartbreak
- Striker Thiaw was part of the Senegal squad that lost the 2002 AFCON final
- Full-back Regragui played in the following final, two years later, which Morocco lost 2-1 to hosts Tunisia
‘He earned it’ – Monica Puig lends support to fellow Puerto Rican Bad Bunny ahead of Super Bowl halftime show
- Retired tennis star speaks to Arab News in Abu Dhabi about the backlash surrounding Bad Bunny’s performance, the fandom around Alex Eala, and the 10-year anniversary of her Olympic triumph
Retired tennis player Monica Puig has voiced her support for fellow Puerto Rican Bad Bunny ahead of his upcoming Super Bowl halftime show, and admits it’s been difficult to witness the backlash against the NFL’s decision to select him to perform in Sunday’s showpiece.
Puig, who made history in Rio 2016 by becoming Puerto Rico’s first-ever Olympic gold medalist, had been working as the stadium presenter and MC at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open tennis tournament in the UAE capital this past week.
The 32-year-old cannot wait to watch her compatriot light up the Super Bowl 60 stage and is disheartened by the controversy that has been created around his upcoming performance.
“I'm getting off of a 15-hour flight tomorrow and I will be turning on the TV to watch Bad Bunny, Benito, or as they call it the ‘Benito Bowl’,” Puig told Arab News in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
“It's been a really controversial moment, which has been hard to see because being from Puerto Rico, it is an American territory; it is part of the United States. And people have really said they wanted an American artist [to perform at the Super Bowl] when we are an American territory.
“We have a U.S. passport, U.S. currency, everything. We are part of the United States. The only thing that we cannot do is vote for the president. But we are essentially part of the U.S.”
Bad Bunny, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has been the most streamed artist on the planet in four of the past five years and the NFL is looking to bank on his mega popularity to expand their global reach.
But some in the United States aren’t happy that the Super Bowl halftime show will be performed in Spanish and others have criticized Bad Bunny’s public stance against the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which prompted him to skip the U.S on his latest tour in order to protect his audience.
Last week, Bad Bunny became the first artist in Grammy Awards history to win Album of the Year with a Spanish-language album, receiving the honor for Debi Tirar Mas Fotos.
He won three awards that night, taking his total Grammy tally to six, and when accepting one of them, he said, uncharacteristically in English: “ICE out! We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”
Puig has personally met Bad Bunny before and is certain his performance is going to be “a treat”.
“He's earned it. Album of the Year; his album has resonated with all of Puerto Rico. It has even made a big international impact,” added Puig, whose first dance at her wedding was to the Bad Bunny song ‘Ojitos Lindos’.
“People who don't know Spanish love his album. And like he says, it doesn't matter if you don't even know Spanish, just learn to dance and you will enjoy. He is a great showman.
“He loves Puerto Rico with all of his heart and it's really great to see that the things that I feel for Puerto Rico and the things that I feel for my country, he feels as well. And I think we all do.
“All Puerto Ricans can pretty much resonate with that. So I'm going to be watching. I already told my husband we are going to order pizza. We are going to sit down. We are going to watch this performance because it's going to be just... I wasn't able to go to his concert because I was pregnant. I wanted to go back to Puerto Rico to watch. So for me, this is going to be a treat.”
Puig, who lives in Atlanta with her husband Nathan Rakitt and their six-month-old daughter Mila, understands everyone is entitled to their own opinion but wishes people can see the commonalities between us all as humans, rather than the things that divide us.
“It's been quite tough to see the divide because I don't think I've really seen so much pushback on many things. I mean, we have seen Latinos perform at the Super Bowl. We've seen Shakira. We've seen so many different faces and voices take the stage that are not American,” she said.
“To be able to see that kind of pushback, it's been a little puzzling. And for me, it is what it is. We're not going to change what's going on. We're not going to have any impact on what people say.
“And that's their own opinion. Everybody's entitled to their opinion. But I know that I am a 100 percent fan.
“We all have to love and embrace one another. Just because we are from somewhere else, just because we speak a different language doesn't make us any different. We are human. We put our shoes on one foot at a time and we all have dreams, ambitions, goals. And that's the most important thing.”
A ‘wild’ week in Abu Dhabi
Dreams, ambitions and goals were on full display in Abu Dhabi this week, where Puig had a front-row seat to the phenomenon that is Alex Eala.
The young Filipina has risen to rockstar status back home as she’s made her way into the top 50 in the world rankings and she drew capacity crowds in the UAE capital for every match she played across singles and doubles.
In doubles, she partnered another groundbreaking southeast Asian in the form of Indonesia’s Janice Tjen.
Both players are making history for their countries every time they step on a tennis court.
Puig knows a thing or two about making history and has some advice for the likes of Eala and Tjen.
“I think to enjoy it, embrace it,” she said.
“It also is a big responsibility because you are pretty much the face for your country. And I know the Philippines has had success in other sports, but Eala now being the face of tennis, Filipino tennis, and Janice Tjen for Indonesia.
“It's really great to see these players coming from their countries and making a big boom. And to see their fan base also follow them is something really cool because it doesn't matter if they know tennis, they don't know tennis, they show up for their countrywomen. And it's really been super exciting to see, especially here in Abu Dhabi, a lot of Filipinos here, a lot of Indonesian fans in here. So it's been a pretty remarkable week.”
Puig described the atmosphere during Eala’s matches as “absolutely wild” and said it reminded her of her own experience competing at the Rio Olympics en route to the top of the podium.
“They were just loud. They were so passionate and they were really trying to encourage Eala to win. And you saw that they were just suffering along with her,” she added.
This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Puig’s Olympic triumph.
Asked to reflect on the standout moment from her run in Rio, she said: “I think the biggest moment for me was seeing back home the reactions of everybody afterward, after the fact.
“Because I didn't really know or understand the impact that it had in Puerto Rico. And then my agent at the end of the match, he's like, ‘You have to see what's going on’. And I was just flabbergasted. I was stunned. And it was the biggest of the biggest celebrations.
“And just to see what it meant and knowing that sports in Puerto Rico really have the power to unite the island and really have the power to kind of dim all of the negativity that's going on and just kind of bring happiness in that moment. It was just wild.”
