Reducing the modern shift to politics would itself miss the point.
For many binational footballers, the decision has always been deeply personal – determined by family, culture and opportunity, as well as passports or public debate.
But the relationship between the Dutch and Moroccan football federations has changed radically.
The scale of these changes is astounding.
Almost one in four players at the 2026 World Cup was born outside the country they represent. Eight of the tournament’s 48 teams have at least as many foreign-born players as domestically born players, illustrating how modern international football increasingly reflects migration patterns.
Few countries embody this evolution better than Morocco.
Nineteen of Mohamed Wahbi’s 26-member team were born outside the country. During the group stage draw against Brazil, Morocco became the first team in World Cup history to field an entire foreign-born squad when Moroccan Azzedine Unahi was substituted in the second half.
This is not an accident of demographics.
More than a decade ago, the Royal Moroccan Football Federation began investing heavily in identifying talent from the two countries across Europe. Scouts were deployed throughout France, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands – not only to keep an eye on promising young people, but to strengthen bonds with them and their families long before international football entered the equation.
Morocco’s former technical director Pim Verbeek later explained that the recruitment process went well beyond the player. Family, he argued, often plays as important a role in shaping a player’s decisions as football.
This policy changed Morocco’s international fortunes. For the 2018 World Cup, five members of their team were born in the Netherlands. Four years later, when Morocco became the first African nation to reach the World Cup semi-finals, their 26-man squad had 14 foreign-born players.
Change rarely happens overnight. In the years after Bussatta, players such as Khalid Boulahrouz and Ibrahim Afellay continued to choose the Netherlands, attracted by the prospect of competing for one of international football’s traditional powers.
At the same time, Morocco steadily changed its approach, forging close ties with players from the two national teams long before senior call-ups became a reality.