West Ham's Nayef Aguerd has thanked everyone for supporting Morocco during their remarkable World Cup run and wants to build on this success in the future.
The Hammers defender helped the Atlas Lions become the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the tournament and they did it by beating Belgium, Spain, and Portugal, before falling to France in the last four.
Aguerd, a £30million signing from Rennes in June, himself has impressed a great deal, matching up well against Luka Modrić, Kevin De Bruyne, and Álvaro Morata, among others, before suffering an injury late in his side’s penalty shootout win over Spain in the round of 16.
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Although the centre-back missed the quarter-final win over Portugal and the 2-0 loss to France due to illness, the 26-year-old is firmly focused on Morocco’s third/fourth-place play-off against Croatia in Qatar on Saturday.
“The emotions we expected together are indescribable,” he posted in a social media post on Friday. “They will remain forever engraved in each of us whether we are a player, a staff member or a fan. We wanted to pursue this daydream and raise the flag of the country we are so proud of.
“Unfortunately, we could not climb this last step, despite all the efforts made to get there. Football is like this and there can only be one winner. I wanted, once again, to thank everyone for their support and for all the love you have given us during the World Cup,” he continued.
“We have certainly made history, but we don’t want to stop there and want to continue this way which should not be an achievement without a future.”
Aguerd has missed much of this season with an ankle injury but his performances will give him and West Ham fans confidence ahead of the resumption of the Premier League season on Boxing Day.
In the Morocco match, Aguerd could line up against on-loan Hammers midfielder Nikola Vlašić of Croatia in the play-off fixture. These two teams drew 0-0 in the group stages of the competition.
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