Morocco has assessed 61 diaspora players since 2017 and named 19 foreign-born in its 2026 World Cup squad
02 July 2026
Nearly one in four 2026 World Cup players were foreign-born. Morocco assessed 61 diaspora players over nine years, named 19 foreign-born in 2026, and gave its recruits screening, pressing and covering jobs in the mid-block.
Miasanrot, a German football site, put the 2026 share at 23.6 percent. 1 The BBC counted 289 foreign-born players among the 1,248 registered across 48 squads, with only eight squads carrying none. 2 3 The two counts disagree at the margin, so the safe claim is roughly one foreign-born player in four.
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