Abraham P. Romero Madrid
Madrid
Updated Monday, March 11, 2024-14:08
News Brahim chooses to play with Morocco
Brahim Díaz
(Málaga, 1999) will play with the
Moroccan
national team and not with
Spain
.
That is the news that broke on Sunday night in the corridors of the
Santiago Bernabéu and that overshadowed
Real Madrid
's victory
over
Celta de Vigo
, with the Andalusian in the starting eleven.
The midfielder has been forced to make the decision now as he is on the pre-list of both national teams:
the country of his paternal grandmother
, Morocco, and the country where
he, his brothers and his parents were born
, Spain. .
An election that, as this newspaper was able to confirm, was definitively agreed on last Thursday, March 7, and that forces us to travel to the past to understand the
intra-history
of a situation full of contradictions and expectations.
Let's go first to
Brahim's adolescence
.
Raised in
Málaga
, at the age of 14 he decided to go to
Manchester City
, where he surpassed different categories until he made his professional debut at 17. At 19, he left England and signed with Madrid
,
which he loaned to
Milan
for three consecutive seasons, until this last summer.
And while all that was happening,
Brahim
became a
fixture in Spain's youth teams
.
He played in the
2016
U17 European Championship , was
an U19 international
and played in the 2021
U21 European Championship
, just before
making his senior debut
in a friendly against Lithuania.
There, in the summer of that year, would come what those who know the situation best call "
the turning point
" for Brahim.
His absence in Tokyo, key
After falling in the semi-finals of the U21 European Championship, with Brahim in the starting team,
Luis de la Fuente
also had to make the squad for the
Tokyo Olympics
.
Of the
11 starters and the 4 substitutes
who had played in the semi-finals of the continental tournament against Portugal, the Olympic coach called up 8, more than half.
The goalkeeper
Álvaro Fernández
, the defenders
Mingueza, Miranda, Óscar Gil and Cucurella
;
the midfielders
Zubimendi and Bryan Gil
and the forward
Javi Puado
.
No sign of
Brahim
, starter in three of the five matches of the tournament and at that time a footballer for
Milan
.
He never summoned him again.
Champions and Scudetto semis, no call
After
124 games for the Rossoneri team
, with 18 goals, 15 assists, a
Scudetto
and a
Champions League semi-final
, Brahim returned to Madrid this summer.
They had not called him by phone nor had they called him up for Spain, but he was still waiting for the national team while Morocco did not stop insisting.
The
African team called him for the first time in 2017
, when he was still in the Spanish U19, and he did not stop dialing their phone every year.
Brahim's response was always the same: "
I want to play for Spain
."
Everything until the last six months.
Brahim returned to Madrid to triumph at the Bernabéu and with the idea that the minutes in white would open the doors of the absolute Spanish team, which had not thought about him for the World Cup
in Qatar
or for the
Nations League
, the first with
Luis Enrique
and the second with
De la Fuente
, the same one who did not call him up for the Games.
He decided to fight and wait.
He did not play many minutes at the beginning of the season and was not called up for the September and October breaks, but he has taken advantage of Madrid's injuries and since December he has been important.
8 goals and 4 assists
that show his evolution.
The result?
He was on De la Fuente's pre-list for this March break, the first since last year.
The problem?
With Morocco behind him, sources close to the situation say that he has become a "
matter of state
" in the African country in recent months. The footballer considers that he has not received the attention and affection that the Spanish Federation has given to others. footballers who were in a similar situation, such as
Le Normand, Laporte, Lamine Yamal or Stefan Bajcetic
.
Players who were nationalized or who had to decide between Spain and another country.
In fact, as this newspaper learned, the RFEF had dinner with several of them to convince them, as with Yamal.
In the case of Brahim, the footballer argues that he has not received
any message, call or interest
from anyone in the Federation.
That the contacts have not existed directly.
In Las Rozas, however, the reflection on the events is different.
This Monday, coach
Luis de la Fuente
assured that he had not spoken with
Brahim
, but that "
the important thing is to want
,
without demands or conditions
."
What
demands had Brahim put on the table
?
How does the coach know if, as both imply, there were no contacts?
On the one hand, it appears that he had asked to be a regular on the lists and
even secure the Euro
, something that the footballer's entourage strongly denies.
Brahim's internal speech focuses again on the
difference in the treatment of the RFEF
with other footballers.
"
When the coach called me, things happened very quickly
," said
Le Normand
in his first press conference.
That, they insist to this newspaper, was what the Andalusian was asking for, a call that has not occurred and that could have changed everything.
Hence the silence of the footballer during the last months in each mixed zone in which he had to participate.
"
I'm focused on Madrid,"
he repeated.
He was waiting for a gesture that, according to him, never came.
Now it is too late and the player, who had already assumed in recent weeks that he would say "yes" to Morocco, decided on
Thursday
that he would play with them.
There he will be captain general.