Younès Belhanda's Unhealed Wound from the World Cup

Two years on from Morocco’s fairytale in Qatar, Younès Belhanda is still stuck on the outside of it, staring at a door that never opened and a phone that never rang.

While the Atlas Lions rewrote history at the 2022 World Cup, becoming the first African and Arab team to reach the semi-finals, one of the most experienced players of his generation watched in silence, far from the celebrations and even further from peace with how it all unfolded.

Now 36 and playing for Al-Sailiya in Qatar, Belhanda has laid bare the resentment that still burns towards national team coach Walid Regragui over his exclusion from that squad.

“Even today, I still hold a grudge against Walid Regragui. I did not understand it,” he said on “Rio Ferdinand Presents”, in comments reported by Spanish newspaper Marca.

Fifty-nine caps, a decade of service, and yet, when the biggest stage arrived, his name was nowhere near the list.

“It was very painful, and I have not got over it even now,” the former Montpellier midfielder admitted. The words land heavily, not as a passing frustration but as a scar he keeps touching.

From Hope to Silence

The hurt is not just about football. Not just about missing a World Cup semi-final run that electrified a continent. For Belhanda, it is also about a relationship he believed was stronger than the decision that cut him out.

Hope had returned when Regragui took over from Vahid Halilhodzic. The two knew each other well. They had worked together, talked often, stayed close.

“I had spent two years without being called up to the Morocco national team, and my relationship with Walid Regragui was very close,” Belhanda explained. “He was my assistant coach, and we talked a lot. Then he called me to call me up to the team right before the World Cup, and gave me hope.”

That call changed everything. Suddenly, the door back into the national team seemed open again. A veteran midfielder, 32 at the time, with the chance to be part of something special. The timing, the familiarity, the trust – it all pointed in one direction.

Then the squad list came out.

His name was not on it.

“It did not destroy me, but it certainly affected me,” he said. The distinction matters. Belhanda is not claiming his career collapsed. But something inside him clearly did.

What stings most is not just the exclusion, but what followed: nothing.

“On the day the squad was announced, I called him, but he did not answer,” Belhanda revealed. “I just wanted an explanation. Be a man and tell me: ‘Younès, I make my decisions.’ I was no longer 15 years old, I was 32. I would have understood it, and accepting it would have been easier.”

That is the crux of it. Not being picked is part of football. Being left without a word, especially by someone you considered close, is something else entirely.

“But there was not even a single call, nothing!” he repeated. “It was very painful, and I have not got over it even now.”

Turning Away From a Historic Run

Morocco’s World Cup journey lit up Qatar. From beating Belgium to knocking out Spain and Portugal, Regragui’s side became a symbol of pride far beyond their own borders.

Belhanda, though, could not bring himself to share in it.

“I did not care, and I did not even watch the matches,” he admitted.

For a player who had lived the national team from the inside, that is a brutal confession. The disconnect was total. The badge he had worn 59 times no longer pulled at him in the same way. The joy of others only sharpened his own sense of exclusion.

The anger followed him beyond Qatar.

He recalled watching the Africa Cup of Nations final against Senegal in 2025 and realising just how far he had drifted from the team that once defined so much of his professional life.

“I watched the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final against Senegal, but I did not follow it the way I follow Morocco national team matches,” he said, his tone still bitter. “You can see how far this anger reached.”

That line says everything. A player who once lived every Morocco game as if he were on the pitch now watches with detachment, measuring the distance between what was and what might have been.

The World Cup made heroes of a generation of Moroccan players and turned Regragui into a national icon. For Younès Belhanda, it left a question hanging in the air, unanswered and, for now, unforgiven.