I expect that we can be the dark horse at World Cup, says Noussair Mazraoui

The right-back joined Bayern Munich this summer

Noussair Mazraoui joined FC Bayern München this summer from Ajax on a free transfer. The right-back has made 10 appearances in the Bundesliga this term, registering one assits.

Noussair Mazraoui recent sat down with the Bundesliga media, discussing a variety of topics including playing in the Bundesliga, his national team and the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup. Finally, here is the full interview.

You were born and raised in the Netherlands, in Leiderdorp, a small town near the North Sea. How would you describe your hometown?

“It’s not even a city, it’s a village I think. Quiet but you also have some places where there’s a lot of fun. It’s a good mixture of quietness and fun, that’s a little description of the village.”

You stayed there for quite a while. The reason is your family, is that right?

“Yes, family, friends, the village is not that big so I know a lot of people there and, for me, in the beginning, it was already a lot of travelling. I kept doing that for 17 years though, so I didn’t know anything else. I can dream of the road from Alphen aan de Rijn to Amsterdam.”

Would you describe yourself as a family man?

“Yes, family is really important for me. To be close to family is really important.”

Your parents are from Morocco and you also play for the national team. What else connects you to Morocco?

“The routes I took, I have been raised by parents who both come from Morocco, so you get a little bit of an education from home, the feeling, the home feeling. Every summer, when we could, we would go to Morocco, we’ve got some family there too. From a young age I already had a connection with Morocco.”

Where’s your talent from? Mother or father?

“Neither of them! My father is tall, his coordination is not very good, my mother is a little bit smaller so I have a good mix of both of them which has made me the way I am today.”

You have said that at Ajax you got to know both the difficult and the good moments of professional football. What were the difficult ones?

“That’s a really long story! I was in the youth teams for my entire youth, from the first to the last team. It was always doubtful, at the end of the year you have this talk about whether you go through to the next year or not, and I always went through, but always with a question mark about whether I was going to make it

this year or not. That went on for ten years in the youth programme, then I was the first ever player to go to the second team without a contract, so that was also doubtful. From then on I made big steps and impressed everybody with where I got to, eventually.”

So you always had to fight, right?

“I really had to fight for everything, I did it 80% by myself, of course your family is with you, but you have to do it at the end of the day, your family can’t stand on the pitch and do it for you, you have to do it yourself. Mentally it made me really strong. Really strong.”

Let's talk about your current club: How would you describe your first four months at Bayern?

“The beginning was a little bit hard, I didn’t get a lot of game time, but I knew eventually I would get my chance. I just had to wait patiently for this chance. I think I didn’t play in the first two months, I just played the last couple of minutes of a game. That’s not a real chance, you cannot show anything there. The first game I started and played almost the whole game, that’s the moment I knew that was my chance and I had to give everything and show everybody what I’m capable of.

From then on, I played a lot more minutes than in the beginning.”

What are your impressions so far in Munich and the Bayern München squad?

“Munich, it’s a big city but it’s not as busy as Amsterdam, and I come from Alphen aan de Rijn, so I like it a lot. There are a lot of places where it’s peaceful, really quiet and beautiful nature, and that suits me a lot. I’m happy that Munich is not a really busy city. You’ve got the centre though, of course, which is busy.

Just like Alphen aan de Rijn, if you want some people around you, you can look for it. Where I live, it’s really peaceful and that’s what I really like. The team is amazing. From the beginning, of course you have to adapt, you have to get to know each other, so it’s a little bit… not distanced, but you’re slowly getting a bit of a feel for each other. In the beginning it was something new, but now, after four months, I feel accepted in the team.”

How do you feel about the special team spirit at FC Bayern?

“Right now, there really is a special team spirit. It was a little bit hard at the beginning, we had some difficult times, we didn’t play that badly but we didn’t win all the games like we are doing now, with this dominance. You feel something is growing in the team and it’s a special team spirit that you’re starting to feel now.”

Bayern Munich’s defence is full of stars, how are you dealing with such strong competition?

“That’s great for your development if you come into a team like this with this kind of players in the defence, it’s great because they make you better. You can see how they defend, and that kind of thing. You learn a lot from just watching. Also have to give your full commitment every day to really get a chance to play. If you don’t do that you know for sure that you’re not going to play with this kind of quality players.”

How does it feel to play in the Bundesliga, what do you like most about the league?

“The intensity of the game is really high. The opponents also work a lot, run a lot more than in Holland, they fight a lot for the points. That’s something different in the Bundesliga from what I was used to.”

What do you think about the fans in the Bundesliga?

“The stadiums at away games are crazy and home games are too. I didn’t expect Bayern to have such a great fan base, I think I heard them for 90 minutes at every game, shouting, cheering, singing for us, it’s really amazing.”

Who do you think could be a threat to Bayern’s 11th Bundesliga title in a row?

“That’s a really hard one, I think Bayern dominated the Bundesliga for the last ten years, so it’s hard to say who is going to be really dangerous for the title. We now have this special spirit which is coming into the team and growing. With the quality we have now, I don’t think another club in the Bundesliga has this quality.”

What are your personal goals during your first season here in Munich?

“To play well in every game that I play, to become a real starting-11 player. These are my first goals, for sure. To improve myself and do whatever has to be done and is needed to be a first-11 player.”

Do your colleagues from the Netherlands in the squad support you?

“Yes, at the beginning for sure. Everything is new, everybody is new, so it helps to be here with somebody you’ve known for a couple of years.”

The World Cup is just around the corner: What can we expect from your team, Morocco?

“We have an amazing team, to be honest, with a lot of quality, a lot of players who play in big leagues in Europe, also for big teams. I expect that we can be the dark horse, they don’t expect it from us, but I think we can do something special, something nobody is imagining, I think we can achieve that.”

The last game of the preliminary round is against Canada - and thus against Alphonso Davies. Please tell us, what does Phonzy think about it?

“I have talked with Phonzy, with Stani (Josep Stanišić, Croatian) about it, it’s great that I play against them.”

Do you think that your participation in the World Cup in Qatar will make you stronger and strengthen your position in Bayern’s defence?

“I don’t think so, I think the national team and the club are two different things. Of course, if you have an amazing World Cup that will help a little bit, but the way you play at your club counts for a lot more than what you do for the national team.”