Morocco drop defender and add attacker for World Cup 23

The 21-year-old Malaga forward was a backup on the original list but he has taken the place of Badr Benoun, a 24-year-old defender with Raja de Casablanca.

Renard dropped another backup, Noussair Mazraoui of Ajax, but kept Oualid El Hajjam, a defender with Amiens in France, as a reserve, leaving him a squad of 24.

The list only contains two players from Morocco’s domestic league.

The Atlas Lions are led by Mehdi Benatia, the Juventus defender involved in a controversial penalty incident as the Turin club lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League in April.

Morocco, who have been training at Crans-Montana in the Swiss Alps, have one more warmup game against Estonia in Talinn.

In their first World Cup in 20 years, Morocco are in Group B at the World and kick off against Iran in Saint Petersburg in June 15 before facing Portugal and Spain.

23-man World Cup squad:

Goalkeepers: Mounir El Kajoui (Numancia/ESP), Yassine Bounou (Girona/ESP), Ahmad Reda Tagnaouti (Ittihad Tanger)

Defenders: Medhi Benatia (Juventus/ITA), Romain Saiss (Wolves/ENG), Manuel Da Costa (Istanbul Basaksehir/TUR), Nabil Dirar (Fenerbahce/TUR), Achraf Hakimi (Real Madrid/ESP), Hamza Mendyl (Lille/FRA)

Midfielders: M’barek Boussoufa (Al Jazira/UAE), Karim El Ahmadi (Feyenoord/NED), Youssef Ait Bennasser (Caen/FRA), Sofyan Amrabat (Feyenoord/NED), Younes Belhanda (Galatasaray/TUR), Faycal Fajr (Getafe/ESP), Amine Harit (Schalke/GER)

Forwards: Khalid Boutaib (Yeni Malatyaspor/TUR), Aziz Bouhaddouz (St Pauli/GER), Ayoub El Kaabi (RS Berkane), Mehdi Carcela (Standard Liege/BEL), Hakim Ziyech (Ajax/NED), Nordin Amrabat (Leganes/ESP), Youssef En-Nesyri (Malaga, ESP).

+ 1 reserve: Oualid El Hajjam (Amiens, FRA).