Morocco coach Walid Regragui played a deadpan blinder after unveiling his players for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. A grudging five-minute interview with a reporter at the Moroccan football federation headquarters in the capital Rabat followed the announcement on social media that the injured Paris Saint-Germain star Achraf Hakimi would skipper the 28-man squad.
Not for Regragui a tub-thumping paean to his uber right back during a press conference, just an arid and business-like demeanour before a solitary hack.
"I wanted to just deliver the list of players and get back to concentrating on the matter at hand which is preparing for the competition," said the 50-year-old former Morocco international 10 days before his side's opening match against Comoros at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.
"The players will be arriving over the next few days and once the competition starts, there'll be plenty of instances to talk to reporters.
"Speaking about the list doesn't really interest me. It's out there. It contains the choices of me and my coaches."
Fast forward a week to the eve of the game and Regragui thumped that tub in front of the previously snubbed reporters.
"Achraf has made sacrifices over the last four or five weeks that nobody else could have made," said Regragui. "And he has set an example to the other players and the staff."
Hakim's journey to status of Cup of Nations poster boy and national icon started towards the end of the last century.
Morocco boss Regragui includes injured PSG star Hakimi in Cup of Nations squad
Born in Spain to Moroccan parents, he grew up in the Madrid suburb of Getafe. After learning his trade at the Real Madrid academy, he began playing for the reserves in 2016. First team boss Zinedine Zidane promoted him the following season and encouraged him to move away to continue his development.
Following a loan spell at the Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund, Hakimi went to Inter Milan where he was part of Antonio Conte's squad that won the 2020/21 Serie A title – Inter's first since Jose Mourinho led them to a treble which included the Champions League and the Coppa Italia.
Aged 23, and already touted as one of the finest right backs of his generation, PSG drafted him into their fold in 2021.
But it was a €68-million transfer overshadowed by the arrival at the Parc des Princes of Lionel Messi to form an attacking troika with Neymar and Kylian Mbappé.
Four years on, that trident lies as a testament to a failed PSG model of frenzied spending on self-indulgent stars.
Under Luis Enrique's 2023 PSG rethink, the ego is eschewed and subsumed into the collective. Hakimi, lauded as fiercely hard-working, has emerged in the Enriquesphere as an everyman superstar.
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"He has helped me to evolve as a player," Hakimi told French broadcaster Canal + during an interview in the summer.
"Before, I didn’t really come into the field. He’s taught me to play in different positions and be more versatile.
"He gives me the freedom to play and do what I like to do. I have to combine with my teammates, find the open spaces, and that’s the confidence he’s given me since he arrived, so I also give him my confidence. I have to be strong on the field."
Hakimi's rampaging performances down the right flank helped PSG to a domestic treble of French Super Cup, Ligue 1 title and Coupe de France at the end of Enrique's first campaign in charge.
The team repeated those exploits the following season and in the final of the 2025 Champions League against Inter Milan, Hakimi scored the first goal in the 5-0 demolition of his old club.
"I'm happy to have someone like him in my side," cooed Enrique just before PSG travelled to Brest for a Ligue 1 encounter in October.
"He is undoubtedly one of the best right backs in the world - for me at any rate. We don't have a back-up for him because that would mean paying a lot of money for someone with his qualities and then they'd get frustrated with their lack of opportunities because he is so rarely injured."
Fate duly tempted, the Bayern Munich forward Luis Diaz delivered the blow on 4 November, Hakimi's 27th birthday. His wild tackle during a Champions League clash at the Parc des Princes left the defender writhing in agony on the deck. Tests later showed a severely sprained left ankle.
Hakimi collected his award as the Confederation of African Football's top African player last month wearing a surgical boot on his foot but he was photographed three days before the start of the Cup of Nations without it leading to speculation a return was on the horizon.
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With Regragui looking on, Hakimi said he was ready for the challenge of skippering the country's finest footballers to a second continental championship.
"I feel good," he added. "I am following the programme given to me by the medical staff and the coach."
Morocco, who are Africa's top team in the Fifa world rankings, possess enough strength to see off Comoros and Zambia without Hakimi.
The clash with Mali on 26 December will be tricky even with him firing on all cylinders.
And the matches will only become more complicated in the knockout stages as the pressure mounts on the hosts.
At the last Cup of Nations in Cote d'Ivoire in January 2024, Morocco entered the tournament as one of the favourites having reached the semi-final at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
But South Africa dispatched them in the last-16. A few months later, Hakimi was appointed skipper of the team of under-23s that claimed bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
By the end of the year, he had taken over the role in a senior squad on their way to world record run of 18 wins on the trot.
Number 19 is expected on Sunday night with Hakimi on the field or champing at the bit in the wings.
