26-year-old Sofyan Amrabat played the tournament of his life with Morocco. Nordin Amrabat is proud that the Fiorentina midfielder had the World Cup final in sight with his country prior to the semi final. “What he has to do and not do, he will now be rewarded for that,” he mentioned.
Amrabat is one of the absolute stars in Qatar and has reportedly attracted the attention of Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Internazionale. “Do you know what it is? He has played well in all the top matches in Italy over the past three years. Against Juventus, Inter, AC Milan…,” Nordin Amrabat recalls.
“I knew he had it in him, but to show it every three days… That’s very clever. Of course I realize that, that’s why it’s emotional too. That my parents were crying, that my little brother is in the semifinals. Whatever he has to do and not do, he will now be rewarded for that. He has also had difficult times at Feyenoord and Club Brugge. His career hasn’t skyrocketed,” the older brother remarked.
According to Nordin Amrabat, the trust of national coach Walid Regragui was all his younger brother needed. “This coach went to Sofyan in Italy and watched the game against Inter. Then they went out to dinner in Florence, very relaxed. Almost like friends. He explained what he expects, and asked Sofyan’s opinion. He felt that he was very important to him. Then you go through fire for someone like that and he does that very cleverly,” he added.
Earlier in the tournament, following the win against Portugal Nordin said, “I’m emotional. I sat next to my parents and they were crying. All the people around us too. Last four in the world, last four! Unbelievable!,” after which he gave his brother a kiss on the forehead in a broken voice.
Sofian joined in and said, “We could not have dreamed this, this is unbelievable. We had to come from very deep. When I started the race I already had very heavy legs, it really is a mental battlefield. In the end I barely made any progress. It’s incredibly hard to play every day for three days. You do everything to recover, but you have little time.”
