Brought the title to Morocco, then retired from the national team » The announcement was made just before the start of the African Cup
Article by Dragoș Petrescu – Published Saturday, December 20, 2025, 1:30 p.m. / Updated Saturday, December 20, 2025, 1:30 p.m.
Morocco prevailed in overtime with Jordanscore 3-2 (2-2 after 90 minutes), in the Arab Cup final, thus managing to conquer the big trophy. Abderrazak Hamdallah (35 years old) was the hero of Walid Regragui's team (50), even in his last match in the shirt of “Leilor din Atlas”.
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The Arab Cup was held in the UAE (United Arab Emirates);
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The Africa Cup of Nations will be hosted by Morocco itself and will take place from 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026.
Full Africa Cup of Nations Stage #1 Schedule (2025-2026 Edition)
The striker from Al-Shabab only started the duel in the last act on the bench, but was introduced on the field in the 72nd minute, replacing the injured Oussama Tannane, at which time Jordan was leading 2-1.
Hamdallah retired from the Moroccan national team after bringing the “lions” the Arabian Cup!
However, Walid Regragui's decision to throw the 35-year-old veteran into the fray proved to be an extremely inspired decision, as he turned the tide of the match.
Hamdallah equalized in the 87th minute, sending the final into extra time, where he also scored the decisive goal in the 10th minute of the first extra period.
However, once the tournament ended, the striker gave sad news to the Moroccan fans. He announced that the match against Jordan represented his last appearance for the national team and, implicitly, that he will not participate in the Africa Cup of Nations, a tournament that will start tomorrow (December 21, 2025) and will end on January 18, 2026.
The 2025-2026 edition of the most important competition at the level of the first representatives on the African continent will be hosted by Morocco itself, and Walid Regragui's team is considered one of the big favorites to win the trophy, along with Senegal, Algeria and Egypt.
Abderrazak Hamdallah's CV
The Moroccan hero made his debut for the national team in 2012, and until now, he has donned the “Atlas Lions” shirt 29 times, during which he managed to score 10 times.
Also, before making the step to the “big team”, Hamdallah ticked off 16 matches and 8 goals for the African country's U23 national team.
If we were to talk about the club teams for which the Moroccan played throughout his career, the most important names would be Al-Nassr (2018-2021), the team for which Cristiano Ronaldo currently plays, Al-Ittihad (2021-2024), where he shared the dressing room with N'Golo Kante, Karim Benzema and Fabinho, but also Al-Shabab, where we still find him today.
What's more, Hamdallah also had a short adventure in European football, in the 2013/2014 season, when he wore the shirt of the Norwegians from Aalesund, for which he managed to score 15 goals in 27 appearances.
345 goals and 64 assistsrecorded by Hamdallah in the 436 matches he has played so far in his entire professional football career
Last but not least, in addition to the title won on Friday night with the Moroccan national team, he has seven other trophies in his record, all of them won with the club teams.
How the 6 groups at the Africa Cup of Nations look like:
