Afcon 2019: Abderrazak Hamdallah walks out of Morocco camp
The alleged incident comes after Morocco’s defeat to Gambia in a pre-tourney friendly.
Morocco’s Abderrazak Hamdallah has allegedly exempted himself from the Africa Cup of Nations by storming out of the Atlas Lions camp over differences with his teammates.
Local journalist Ayoub El Basri of Radio Mars announced the news after talking to a source close to the footballer, leaving doors open for rumors and speculation.
Several local sports outlets suggested that the footballer left due to problems with the other players on the Atlas Lions team.
Al Mountakhab reported that the major reason is the behaviour of teammate Faisal Fajr during the Morocco-Gambia friendly game. Hamdallah was supposed to kick the penalty for the Atlas Lions. In a surprising move, Fajr took the ball from Hamdallah’s hand and played the penalty instead.
Fajr missed the penalty which would have leveled the score.
Hamdallah made the list of the 23 players selected to join Morocco’s Afcon squad. Morocco’s Royal Football Federation and head coach of the national football team Herve Renard has not yet confirmed the news.
The news comes after a friendly game played between Morocco and Gambia on Wednesday, June 12. Gambia defeated the national team by 1-0.
It remains to be seen whether the FRMF will deny or confirm the news.
Hamdallah currently plays for the Saudi football club of Al Nassr. The club awarded him the Golden Shoe Award and the title of the best scorer of the Saudi Football Championship during the 2018-2019 season for making history by topping the charts of Saudi Football as the top goal scorer ever recorded.
In March, Renard and Hamdallah had a small rift after Hamdallah rejected Renard’s invitation to play with Morocco in March.
The BBC reported that the footballer could not accept Renard’s invitation for personal reasons relating to his family.
Renard has commented on Hamdallah’s decision, saying that he spoke to him on the phone.
“He declined for reasons you know, I had 33 other players to manage, so I turned the page.”
Hamdallah made his debut with the Atlas Lions in a friendly against Burkina Faso in February 2012.
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