Worn with Pride: Football, Belonging and the Culture of Football Fabrics in Morocco
After the warm reception of our first editorial piece about New York City among friends, family, and our beloved AGP community, I am excited to bring you our second editorial piece about football culture and people in Morocco, in the heart of North Africa.
This editorial piece explores the rapid growth of football in Morocco, which has been accelerated by the Atlas Lions' unforeseen and historic performance in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Morocco was the first African nation ever to reach the semi-final stages of the tournament. Their unprecedented performance had an everlasting impact on the country’s global radiance and the Moroccan society's daily breath of football. From kids kicking a ball on the street, to adults in cafés debating about Raja and Wydad Casablanca, to rising ballers shining on elite European football stages, like Achraf Hakimi, Brahim Diaz, and Soufiane Amrabat.
SHORT STAY IN FEZ, BUT SHAPED THE WHOLE TRIP.
This is my second time setting foot on Moroccan soil. I landed in Fez to spend 10 days in a country I called Home last year after my first trip. I landed in Fez on April 27th after a 3-hour flight from Rome. Fez is a city rooted in Islamic heritage, situated in northern Morocco. It is known for its maze-like old medina, tight alleys, and famous leather tanneries where hard-working labourers grind to earn a living off treating raw leather layers in a sun-soaked and sweaty atmosphere. The working conditions are tough; it’s a job that requires immense resilience and endurance. As a visitor, you would not last long inside the tanneries; the smell is unpleasant and potent. That's why, upon my entry, one local handed me a bunch of mint leaves to sniff, to change the air around me while I wandered there.
To access the tanneries, I paid 30 Dirhams to one of the local guys to let me roam freely at my own pace, with the freedom to take pictures from all angles I wished. However, at a certain point, I felt uncomfortable because I was taking pictures of labourers grinding through blood and sweat. I was just the outsider taking photos of them. I felt embarrassed, so I stopped.
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
Then came a moment that completely reshaped the purpose of my trip. A hard-working man walked out of nowhere wearing a torn and heavily stained Juventus home shirt of the 2019-2020 season, balancing over his head a stack of dried leather layers ready to be cut and processed inside the tanneries. This moment froze in my mind and completely reshaped my trip's purpose in another direction, from a laid-back and chilling vacation to documenting football in Morocco. Instantly, I thought of Émile Samory Fofana's work, in which he explored the football shirts’ influence on workwear in Mali, and how everyday labourers preferred to work in a piece of coloured polyester textile adorned with an embroidered football club badge, a front sponsor, and a sports technical manufacturer logo, rather than traditional workwear. It was a surreal and powerful moment for me. I realised this is a story to be told in a blog post in AGP.
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
COUSCOUS, ATAY & BROTHERHOOD
A few minutes later, a group of high-school pupils approached me inside the tanneries as I stood near the edge of a rooftop overlooking the tanneries. One of them called me out,
Hey, Bro, where are you from?
I replied with a smile. “I am from Tunisia and you guys?”
They responded with a proud voice, “We are Moroccans.”
I laughed, “Then let’s speak Darija (referring to the Moroccan Arabic Dialect), why are we talking in English, though? I can understand and speak a bit of Darija.”
They were surprised. “OK, bro. Could you please take pictures of all of us with your camera and send them to us on Instagram?”
I replied, “Okay, but first, be careful. We stand close to the rooftop’s edge; don’t get too excited.”
We took a few photos, but what all struck me when I looked up at these boys through the camera’s viewfinder was their school attire. They were all wearing football trackies from European football clubs, casual summer slides, carrying lightweight backpacks over their shoulders, and two of them wore “Maghreb of Fez” football shirts underneath. Thereafter, I realised most teenagers in Morocco wear football merchandise as school uniforms, which is uncommon in Western countries. It was a bold and clear statement defining the self-identification of Moroccan youth with the fabric of football and the uniform of identity.
After the photos, Hasan and the other boys invited me to one of their houses to eat traditional Moroccan Couscous and Atay (Tea) to experience hospitality in a humble Moroccan household. This generosity has expanded my love for Morocco and its people's warmth. I could not be more grateful for this moment, sharing a meal with these football-driven kids who met me in the tanneries and welcomed me cheerfully into their homes.
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
After shifting my trip to document football culture in Morocco, I turned my lens on every football aspect of the city, from kids kicking a ball in the medina’s alleys to working men dressing in football shirts as daily workwear to the countless sportswear shops selling counterfeit football shirts. I saw endless shirts from Inter Miami to Al-Nassr, retro 90’s throwback shirts, never-seen-designed shirts of Japan, and Achraf Hakimi’s shirts are ubiquitously hung up in the medina between the electricity wires, draped in markets, and worn with pride by kids. Hakimi is seen as a national hero of the Moroccan Kingdom, a symbol of pride, and a role model for the Moroccan youth who aspire to become professional footballers, shining on football’s global stages. In a moment of joy and pride, Achraf Hakimi made international headlines draped in a Moroccan flag in the Allianz Arena in Munich, bringing the silverware to Paname and leading Paris-Saint Germain with his teammates to a historic Champions League triumph for the first time in the club’s history over Inter Milan 5-0 to become the first Moroccan to score and win the most prestigious trophy while playing in the final, making Morocco and Africa proud.
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
Fez was a special city to spend a short stay wandering through its old medinas’ alleys, exploring the ancient Mosques and Madrasas adorned in Andalusian tiles. I tasted the best traditional Moroccan food while sipping Moroccan tea. I conversed casually with people, from the fruit peddlers to street vendors and market merchants. I felt welcome in every place I stopped, especially when I mentioned I am Tunisian, the phrase that I’d heard from them is:
“Marhba Bik Khouya Fi Maghrib, Ahna Khawa-Khawa, Dima Maghrib”, translated to “You Are Welcome to Morocco Bro, We Are Brothers and Long Live Morocco.”
These words will stay with me forever. The city already won my heart, and who knows? I might return to watch our Carthage Eagles take on the Nigerian Super Eagles in the next AFCON in Fez.
TAGHAZOUT: MOROCCO'S MECCA OF FOOTBALL FABRICS.
Taghazout is a laid-back fishing village situated on Morocco’s west coast and located 10 KM far north of Agadir, known for a thriving surf culture, and its luring Ocean waves that attract travel wanderers, surf enthusiasts, and surf rookies from all over the globe to come to learn surfing on the country’s coast and experience the finest Moroccan culture blended with surfing. A year ago, I was one of those rookies who booked a trip to Taghazout to immerse myself in a new experience, unaware that I’d fall in love with the village, its people’s warmth, and the Moroccan culture.
I headed south to Taghazout to spend the rest of my vacation. The journey from Fez was 13 hours long and exhausting, but I got this. I arrived at night around 10 PM, completely worn out, at the same time the Champions League semi-final match between FC Barcelona and Inter Milan was about to finish. All the cafés were packed with locals and tourists watching the match. Unfortunately, I could not sit and watch the rest of the game, I was overloaded with my backpack, and spots were all taken too. So I decided to go to the hostel to check in before it closed.
I observed a freshly inaugurated caged basketball court that I had not seen there last year. Under the floodlights, local men transformed the basketball court into a football pitch, placing two stones under each hoop serving as goalposts about a meter wide, where a 5-a-side street football match was being played at 11 PM, So I entered the court, sat next to the sidelines to take pictures, and cheered everyone inside with “Assalamu Alaikum”. It was a pure FIFA Street moment, very nostalgic, and reminds me of playing FIFA Street in the mid-2000s in the golden Total90 and Teamgiest era.
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
Over my next 6 days in Tagahzout, I turned my eyes and camera lens toward every person playing, working, or engaging in an activity wearing a football shirt to take a picture of them, There was a lot, including myself, the number of people wearing football shirts in town was overwhelming for me, from the daily labourers, restaurant staff, vendors, merchants, surfers, skaters, tourists, to kids. This is not a coincidence happening simultaneously in the same place; it is a cultural movement among Moroccans. We North Africans love football endlessly; it is palpable in our daily attire and stitched in our everyday talks, in the cafés, Sunday markets, streets, schools, grocery stores, fishmongers, barbershops, local restaurants, just everywhere.
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
MOROCCO’S FOOTBALLING FUTURE: AFCON, WC 2030 AND BEYOND
Football is not just a sport in Morocco, but a movement and evolving lifestyle deeply embedded among the Moroccan youth and society; They love kicking a ball on the narrow streets or inside a dirt pitch in the neighbourhood. From early morning to late night, you will find kids, teenagers, and adults organising football sessions and playing football throughout the day. People of Morocco stay updated with players' market transfers, stats, and domestic European match results and often debate who is better in the world, Real Madrid or Barcelona, Vini or Lamal?
Morocco is hosting the next AFCON next winter in celebration of African football on home soil, and the entire nation is buzzing, backing the Atlas Lions stars and counting on Achraf Hakimi and Yassine Bounou to bring the silverware home, as Morocco last won it in 1976. Besides the AFCON, Morocco will co-host the FIFA World Cup 2030 centenary edition with Spain and Portugal. This event represents a massive milestone in the Moroccan Kingdom’s history; Morocco is experiencing a golden era economically, culturally, and sportingly. Football has not only placed Morocco on the global map but has propelled the country forward, unifying Moroccans together, driving development in the kingdom for living an unforeseen renaissance, which has become a destination for visitors, investors, and wanderlusts to explore and taste the finest Moroccan heritage, culture, and warm hospitality.
BEYOND FOOTBALL, MY THOUGHTS:
My time in Taghazout was filled with simple pleasures and human connection. I reunited with my old friend Walid, I forged new friendships with amazing people through Taghazout Skate Park, where all the genuine human connections last forever. Marine, Raffaella, Amine, Ayoub, and Yassine were among them. We spent many afternoons and nights strolling through the village, eating, chatting, laughing, and sitting. Not to mention, all merchants, street vendors, and restaurant staff, with whom I interacted during my stay, who stuffed me with their best traditional Moroccan food and drinks.
© Salmen Ayadi 2025
I met Marine, a creative student from France. We shared Tajines, grilled sardines, shrimp, and Moroccan Atay. As we were in Morocco, I encouraged her to ditch the cutlery when eating and to use her hands to savour the food better, and she did. Besides, her eagerness to learn the Darija went far with taking notes on pronouncing words; Yassine and Amine were present to school her the basics of Moroccan Darija. I also met Raffaella, who had once lived in Tunisia and fostered a deep connection with our shared North African and Mediterranean cultures. In her last hours in Taghazout, we shared a simple and memorable Moroccan breakfast before she set off for Dakkar to continue her humanitarian mission, leaving unforgettable memories behind in the surfing village. Although my time in Morocco ended, its football soul and many human connections continue to shape my views of football, culture, and storytelling.
This article would not have been written had I not seen the working man wearing a Juventus shirt inside the tanneries. All photos taken were under consent.
You can follow my journey on Instagram @salmen_ayadi where I share content about football, travel, cultures, photography, football inspired creative work and football product design.
Thank you for your time.
Salmen Ayadi
April-May 2025.