REAL MADRID
How could Brahim Díaz’s decision to play for Morocco over Spain have a negative impact on Real Madrid?
The Madrid playmaker opted to play for the African side, which could lead to AFCON and Club World Cup issues next year.
Real Madrid are likely to run into a problem with Brahim Díaz, which could be the first of several, in the summer of 2025. Last week, the attacker made the decision to play for Morocco over Spain, which could have negative consequences for Los Blancos.
Brahím boosts Morocco after poor AFCON 2023
Brahim won’t be involved in any of this coming summer’s big international tournaments (UEFA Euro 2024, the Copa América and the Olympic Games), which means he should be fresh for the 2024/25 season, which will begin after Madrid face Barcelona in another stateside Clásico in New Jersey on 3 August. The following summer, however, will be another story entirely.
Upon arriving in Morocco for the first since opting to play for the Atlas Lions, the 24-year-old received a hero’s welcome. The Madrid star’s commitment has unleashed a wave of optimism among fans who were left disappointed by the team’s poor performance at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, in which they lost to South Africa in the round of 16.
Their showing in the Ivory Coast was made all the more anti-climatic by the fact they had reached the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup a little over a year earlier, becoming the first African and Arab nation to feature in the last four.
Now, their main focus for the future is on AFCON 2025, which will be held in Morocco itself. The tournament will shift away from its usual winter dates and will run from 23 July to 21 August.
Díaz’s busy 2025: Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup and AFCON 2025
While the change should at least ensure Brahim doesn’t miss important league games in the middle of the season, the next African Cup of Nations will take place immediately before the new FIFA Club World Cup, which Real Madrid are expected to take seriously. The LaLiga giants are guaranteed to be one of the 32 participants in the United States, qualifying as winners of the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League.
The addition of a new summer tournament means there will be a tighter turnaround between seasons than normal, although Brahim’s case will be more extreme than most.
The 2024/25 domestic season will end of the weekend of 24/25 May, with the final of the revamped Champions League scheduled for Saturday 31 May at the Allianz Arena in Munich).
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, to be played in the US between 15 June and 13 July, will start two weeks later and finish just over a week before the start of AFCON 2025. On top of that, Morocco will surely hope to have Brahim, likely to become one of their key players, with them to prepare for the tournament, which they will be desperate to win on home soil.
Should the Atlas Lions reach the final of the competition, there is a chance the playmaker could play right through the summer without any time off, while he would also miss the beginning of the 2025/26 LaLiga season.
Real Madrid’s African Cup of Nations hope
The Africa Cup of Nations has historically been played during winter months in the Northern Hemisphere, mainly due to weather conditions in most African host countries.
There has been an attempt to switch to summer to reduce scheduling conflicts with European clubs, who have an increasing number of African players on their books.
The 2019 tournament was in held in Egypt during the Northern Hemisphere summer for the first time ever but both AFCON 2021 and 2023 switched back to the start of the year for climate-related reasons, a trend Real Madrid, and other European teams, will hope doesn’t continue in future.