Nov 9 (Reuters) - Former France under-21 international Sofiane Diop has accepted a first call-up from Morocco for the start of their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign this month, coach Walid Regragui confirmed on Thursday.
Nice midfielder Diop, 23, was born in France but is also eligible for Morocco, who reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in Qatar and recently recruited another French youth international in Bayer Leverkusen winger Amine Adli.
"He (Diop) is a player who could have chosen other countries also.
Morocco are scheduled to host Eritrea next Thursday in their qualification opener and despite reports the latter could withdraw from the preliminaries, Regragui said they have received no confirmation from FIFA.
The Atlas Lions will travel away to Tanzania on Nov. 21 for their second game.
Persons:
Sofiane Diop, Walid Regragui, Diop, Regragui, Yassine Bounou, Munir El Kajoui, El Mehdi Benabid, Ghanem Saiss, Nayef Aguerd, Abdelkabir, Yunis, Achraf, Ayoub El, Noussair Mazraoui, Yahya Attiat Allah, Sofyan, Azzedine Ounahi, Yahya Jabrane, Ismael Saibari, Bilal El Khannouss, Amir Richardson, Hakim Ziyech, Youssef En, Tarik Tissoudali, Nick Said, Toby Davis
Organizations:
Bayer Leverkusen, FIFA, The Atlas Lions, Thomson
Locations:
France, Morocco, Qatar, Tanzania, Niger, Congo, Zambia, United States, Mexico, Canada