Former Morocco nationwide staff captain Romain Saiss has brazenly blasted Brahim Diaz for the missed Panenka penalty through the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) closing between Morocco and the West African nation on January 19, in Rabat.
During the ultimate that was marred by controversy within the closing phases, the Atlas Lions had been awarded a penalty with solely two minutes of regular added time remaining.
Though Senegal protested the choice, and threatened to desert the ultimate, they rescinded their boycott threats after being cooled down by Sadio Mane, and allowed Morocco to take the penalty.
Diaz, who was the star participant for Morocco from event kick-off, by means of to the group phases, and up till the grand finale, having scored 5 targets from seven matches, stepped as much as take the resultant kick.
However, his tried Panenka kick was simply saved by Edouard Mendy, taking the ultimate into extra-time. Senegal capitalised on the state of affairs, to attain courtesy of Pape Gueye to win the final 1-0 and clinch their second African title, denying Morocco the prospect to finish their 50-year await the crown.
Diaz may have been the hero
“At this level of competition, he can’t do it on purpose. Let’s not talk nonsense,” stated the previous Morocco captain as quoted by Colinterview. “He could have been the hero, but he wanted to be the superhero. I feel bad for him because it tarnishes his AFCON a bit.
“I thought to myself, ‘He didn’t actually do that, did he?’ I immediately turned around, put my head in my hands, and thought, ‘He didn’t dare do that.’ You can miss a penalty in an AFCON final.
“It’s happened to us (…). It’s part of football. But when he did the Panenka, I said, ‘You can’t do that now.’ I’m smiling about it now, but at the time I wasn’t. It’s the last second.
“You haven’t won an AFCON for 50 years; you haven’t been in the final for 24 years.
“You’re at home. I thought to myself, ‘Go ahead and put a screamer right down the middle. Thank you, goodbye, we lift the trophy, we go home.’ “Everyone is happy and we’ll have a party.”
‘I felt empty at the time’
He continued: “I asked myself, ‘Was he aware of all this, of what was happening on the side?’ From that moment until today, I feel empty. I didn’t cry after that defeat.
“I didn’t have that anger where I lost my temper to externalise something and move on. I felt empty at the time. Since then, it’s been a shock.
“Basically, it’s a bad nightmare, and I’ll wake up tomorrow to either the start of the final or the beginning of the AFCON.”
Diaz later apologised for the missed alternative on his social media pages: He wrote: “I failed, and I take full responsibility and apologise with all my heart.
“It will be hard for me to recover because this wound does not heal easily, but I will try. Not for myself, but for all who believed in me and for all who suffered with me.”
A couple of weeks after the AFCON closing, Saiss introduced his retirement from worldwide soccer on the age of 34, bringing to an finish a profession that spanned greater than a decade.
Saiss earned 86 caps for Morocco and captained the facet throughout one of the crucial profitable durations within the nation’s soccer historical past, together with their historic run to the semi-finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar – the primary African staff to succeed in that stage of the event.
