Athletics national side

Morocco U23

National team · Morocco

«Lionceaux de l'Atlas U23»

21 Matches

11 wins

5 draws

5 losses

39–20 Goals

+19 Difference

1.9 Scored per game

Form W W L W D D

The residential wing at the Complexe Mohammed VI de Football in Salé holds 150 beds across three blocks, and that number says more about the team than any trophy: the Morocco U23 side lives together in camp rather than assembling for a week before a tournament, training on the same grounds the senior national team uses. The complex opened on 9 December 2019, and since then Rabat and Salé have effectively become the address this age group calls home, even though the team itself dates back to 1960, when it beat Tunisia 2-0 in its first international.

The side answers to the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, and the squad it fields tends not to stay a U23 squad for long. Achraf Hakimi and Brahim Díaz have both passed through it on their way to established senior careers, and Abde Ezzalzouli captained the group that won the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations in 2023, beating Egypt 2-1 in the final in a competition Morocco had finished runners-up in twelve years earlier, losing to Gabon. That 2023 title fed directly into the run to Paris in 2024, where Morocco took Olympic bronze after putting six past Egypt without reply in the third-place match.

Egypt is the name that keeps recurring. Twice in two years the two sides met for a medal, first in the final of the continental championship, then in the play-off for Olympic bronze, and each time Morocco came out ahead. Little else in the age group's history carries that weight of repetition.

Latest results

Fixtures and results

30 Mar	Friendlies	Côte d'Ivoire U20 H	2:2	D
26 Mar	Friendlies	Côte d'Ivoire U20 H	0:0	D
8 Aug 2024	Olympics Men	Egypt U23 A	6:0	W
5 Aug 2024	Olympics Men	Spain U23 H	1:2	L
2 Aug 2024	Olympics Men	United States U23 H	4:0	W
30 Jul 2024	Olympics Men	Iraq U23 H	3:0	W