For Girls in Casablanca, Dreams of Football Go Beyond the Pavement

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Dispatch: a series dedicated to immersive storytelling, where our photographers and writers journey to chosen places, combining evocative imagery with long-form editorials to uncover and share unique football cultures.

For Girls in Casablanca, Dreams of Football Go Beyond the Pavement

Words by Fay Harvey
Photography by Andrea Vílchez, Jinane Ennasri, Susana Ferriera and Matthew David Stith

July 24, 2025

CASABLANCA, Morocco — The question, “what do you want to be when you grow up,” has been haunting young people for ages.

As a small child, hearing this question felt like looking into a movie about your life with 100 different cutaways. In the first scene, maybe you could see the burgeoning image of yourself morphing into an astronaut, and then swiftly, an outfit change removes your space suit and your helmet and suddenly, you walk out of a ship onto a catwalk as a musical star in the midst of their world tour. But as the years move and the limbs extend and your responsibilities start stacking; this curiosity becomes somewhat of an existential threat.

Having your name up in lights feels out of reach, and orbiting space feels even more impossible: we begin leaning towards the mundane, and the idea of envisioning dreams that go beyond your everyday stomping grounds can feel impossible.

At least that is what I thought people felt until I met the Moroccan girls belonging to youth football club Amiad Al Hkalil Arryadia (A.K.A) in July, who proved to me that with the right support system, obtaining your dreams doesn’t have to feel like catching lightning in a bottle.

We met the team in a serendipitous fashion passing by their practice field on the way to Larbi Zouli Stadium in Casablanca on July 6. On our way to watch the Nigerian Super Falcons take on Tunisia in the bowl-like, blue and white seated stadium, the team and I piled into a six-seater van for the touch-and-go traffic on our 20 minute voyage up north. As a group, we discussed the basics: our plans for the day, what we hope to accomplish at the match and, naturally, TikTok trends.

While passing my phone around the van to look at some useless, short-form content, life was moving rapidly beside us. Men piled onto mopeds zoomed past us, graffitied walls served as backdrops to business owners running shop, trees sprouting out of road medians swayed in the wind — but in the very corner of our eye, colorful figures leaning against a classically colored beige Casablanca wall jumped out at us. A group of football players wearing pink and white football kits, with one wearing a bumblebee-striped black and yellow kit, stood alongside their coach sporting navy blue tracksuit. Standing in a peaceful, still manner with each figure quietly taking in their surroundings, the group looked as though they were painted on the wall and had been a part of the city since forever.

Within Casablanca, the Moroccan region home to an approximate 4.1 million people, football related things — players, jerseys, footballs, graffiti, advertisements — are more prevalent in the streets than common attributes seen in highly-populated areas, like stray dogs, nosey street birds and nosey police officers. Hakimi’s #2 kit, Messi’s Pink Inter Miami jersey and both PSG and Real Madrid tops run rampant in the streets, and are mainly fashioned on young kids and adolescent teens. In most alleyways between flats and markets, a game of two touch between young boys ensues, while in the medinas, football shops exist at every turn and are typically run by an older football lover with neverending tales about their days watching Wydad or Raja — with some having even played for one of the two popular Moroccan clubs, only to catch an injury before making it on the national team roster.

While the global game decorates the town, one might notice that young female players engaging in street football, though not completely absent, tend to be a rarity. This is precisely why when we noticed the all-girl renaissance painting through our left window on July 6, we asked Emraan, our driver, to abruptly stomp on his brakes and let us out despite our route to the stadium not calling for this pitstop.

After stopping the van in a cartoonish fashion, the doors slid open to the right side of the street and we were greeted by turf within green fencing; two Morocco flags draped from the perimeter’s webbing. We crossed the street and approached the man that proudly stood beside the group that leaned against the wall and a pair of the girls sat in a sidewalk divet where a frail tree blossomed.

Benchkir Abdrrahim, the man standing beside the girls, happily greeted us with a slight tinge of confusion that disappeared when we explained our reason for being in Morocco: The CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. We learned that he is not only the team’s coach, but he is also the president of the club. He happily told us about this accomplishment as he stood by his son who also plays in the club on the boys’ team.

While we spoke, Football Case Study Member Andrea Vílchez, Founder Matthew David Stith and Jinane Ennasri snapped portraits of the girls, all of whom sported tattered sneakers and mismatched socks that exemplified their consistent football practice. The group was waiting for an opposing team to arrive for a match that was to ensue in the Moroccan field across the street. As we left, Benchkir invited us to return for a chance to watch the girls in action during a training session.

The Casablanca girl’s sport attire reflects how often they engage in football: daily
Andrea Vílchez / Football Case Study

Sitting in a circle formation on a turf field in the western regions of Casablanca one week later, the footballers, now sitting as a full team, humored me as I asked them questions unrelated to the exact thing that we were there for: football. The girls began by going around the circle introducing themselves as the blue sky above us, littered with clouds, had a UV so strong that everyone broke a sweat before any playing had gone underway.

Shy, but very polite, the girls exchanged looks with one another as we spoke in Darija and English through Jinane Ennasri — Moroccan-American Football Case Study Member and on-ground translator, who graciously pieced our verbal puzzle together despite our languages not connecting. They fiddled with their hands and didn’t hold eye contact for long as they answered questions about life in Casablanca, such as their daily routines, where they couldn’t come up with concrete answers besides the fact that day-to-day it varies, but ultimately, skincare is first.

However, the following question — the age-old question that asks the recipient to look into a future not promised, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” — caused a demeanor shift towards optimism rather than impending doom.

Expecting the girls to hesitate in the same fashion they had throughout our time on the turf, I took a second to look down at my notes. When my head bobbed back up, I was surprised to see many of the girls had their hands up, ready to answer in an instant. Ahlam, the 14-year-old captain who fell in love with football through her father, said she hopes to be an ambassador, while her teammate mentioned dreams of becoming a doctor. Chatter ensued of all the possibilities and the girls came to a consensus: while dreams of different careers float around their head, the dream of being a professional footballer is primary and, most importantly, possible.

In the entire conversation that had taken place thus far, it was football that got the girls not only confident, but also certain. Up until this point, the conversation felt like ticking off boxes with a nurse in a bleak waiting room; but once football was mentioned and became the topic, it was direct answering, eye contact and eagerness to share about their personal connection to the field.

As he sat on a bench from afar with his son and a couple of other neighborhood boys, Benchkir looked at his team arranged in a circle as if he knew these responses were being spoken by the girls. He sat with an aura of humble pride, for he knew what he created six years ago had come to fruition.

Benchkir Abdrrahim coaches both his son and daughter on the A.K.A teams
Jinane Ennasri / Football Case Study

Benchkir Abdrrahim funds the youth club out of his own pockets and the generosity of parents
Andrea Vílchez / Football Case Study

Benchkir Abdrrahim’s motorbike sits outside the practice pitch in Casablanca
Susana Ferriera / Football Case Study

Formed in 2019, Benchkir caught inspiration to create his association when he noticed his son and daughter developing a deep love for football. Growing up in the same exact Casablanca neighborhoods himself where he consistently indulged in football with friends, he decided to build the club step by step in his hometown, out of his very own pocket and the donations of parents. Present day, he has a full girls and boys team, and the boy’s most recent venture to a tournament earned them a first place title. Pulling out his phone mid conversation, and mid whistle to interject in the rowdy moments of the girls’ training, he showed me a photo of his boys team, trophy in arms with beaming smiles on their faces.

Like in many regions across the globe, women’s football has been rapidly gaining traction over the past two decades, with many young Moroccan girls, such as the ones here at A.K.A., developing true dreams of representing their country on a national football level. To Benchkir, and a plethora of other men I have spoken with in Morocco — fathers, brothers, taxi drivers, fans within the stadiums— this development of girls playing football casually and competitively still feels new, but they acknowledge the path is transcending the possibilities they felt were possible in years past.

1997 stands as the historic year where the Moroccan women’s national team was born. And that following year, the team went on to record their first international match where they went against South Africa in the CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations hosted in Nigeria. Founded by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) and consisting of Moroccan women who were found in a local championship held two days earlier, according to writer Pauline Maisterra of Femmes Du Maroc, this pivotal creation created the path for excellence in Moroccan women’s football.

The progress seen over the past decades in Moroccan women's football could not have been done without the Moroccan players who have put their blood, sweat and tears into nurturing the foundation. One Moroccan player in the early days named Lamia Boumehdi who hailed from the Casablanca-Settat region of Berrechid, began making her presence known at a mere 17 years old when she debuted at the 2000 CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, cementing her status as the youngest woman to play for the Atlas Lionesses. Though her career ended at age 26 following an injury, Lamia continued her involvement in football by becoming one of the first ever female Moroccan coaches for Wydad Casablanca women’s A football team, and even led the women at DR Congo’s Tout Puissant Mazembe to victory in the fourth ever CAF Women’s Champions League in 2024.

In a March interview with CAF, Lamia praised the emergence of opportunity in football that girls in Morocco now see, and attributed part of the newfound success to competitions such as WAFCON and CAF Women’s Champions League as well as the emergence of youth academies and programs that prove to young footballers that playing in big stadiums under bright lights is not an out-of-reach dream.

These new developments, including infrastructure investments from both the FRMF and the Moroccan Kingdom, paired with the success of the great Casablanca-born Moroccan national team Captain Ghizlane Chebbak — the girls’ favorite player — who is leading her team to the 2024 WAFCON final while being a top tournament goal scorer, are sending clear messages to young women around the country that this life of athletic professionalism is possible.

But I didn’t need to explain that to the A.K.A. girls, for they made it clear as day how capable they feel. In the same future telling fashion, the girls assured me that within 10 years, they saw the future of their club and fellow Casablanca female teams being as grand as Real Madrid and Barcelona. Weighing the possibilities, they had additional dreams of placing the Moroccan clubs in several different locations throughout the world. In their words, the girls want everyone to be included, even boys.

When the afternoon clock strikes tea time on the weekend, the girls find the opportunity to play in the streets within their neighborhoods, where sometimes boys join in to compete. When I asked how they felt they fared compared to the boys’ level, they shrugged and, with a tone of indifference, said, “sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.” To the team, the level of play is not what mattered most; it was the weight of the interactions. The girls went on to explain that being in the same playing circle as the boys acted as a learning experience filled with inspiration to improve.

The girls’ lone practice field sits sandwiched between a multiple-floor building to the left and a street leading into markets on the right where refreshments such as fresh squeezed orange juice are sold, bread is baked and men are gathered to chat about the local happenings. Around the field’s fencing, Benchkir’s motorbike sits next to a cement bench and random everyday objects are sporadically sprinkled on the ground: plastic water bottles, clothes that seemed to be etched into the ground after being in the same spot for quite some time, and plastic athletic slippers. The turf where the girls train sit without shade under the North African sun where the girls outrun one another in the hot, ocean-touched air.

The A.K.A. girls team is nearly split down the middle with 5 Wydad supporters and 4 Raja supporters
Susana Ferriera / Football Case Study

Ahlam, the team captain, gained her role after showing a natural instinct for leadership
Susana Ferriera / Football Case Study

The girls are inspired by their neighborhood friends who they play afternoon games in the street with
Susana Ferriera / Football Case Study

The practice field is surrounded by a green fence and busy street
Susana Ferriera / Football Case Study

During the practice session, the girls played with intensity, innovation and communication. Benchkir stood amongst them on the field as a necessary teammate to fill the gap in the roster, while Eman, the team’s smallest player, projected her voice loudly across the field as an indispensable center back. This confident, talkative nature is something their coach intended on instilling from day one.

“I feel like a father figure to them when we are at the field, and the least I can do is make my team feel independent, well rounded and, above all, strong,” said Benchkir.

While we spoke, he acknowledged the girls’ desire to eventually make it professional, stating that all Moroccans want to contribute in making the country strong, whether it is through on-ground support or physically wearing the FRMF crest on their chest. His managerial aim is to get them to the next level, and he is filled with excitement when he sees the girls improve; but the real goals lie in the mental toughness he hopes to nurture through primarily encouraging education and molding strong personalities within the girls to build an unwillingness to slip through the cracks.

According to Metroverse, the economically robust Casablanca excels at a plethora of jobs such as textile manufacturing, trade and transportation, to name a few. The city itself contributes 44% of the Moroccan Kingdom’s industrial labor, and next to Mohammedia, the seaports in Casablanca account for over half of the country’s imports — paired with the growing, seven-figure population, the city is in a constant state of hustle, bustle and success.

As I write this from our flat in Casablanca, the sounds of whirring steel, honking motor vehicles and commuters beelining to work play as the town symphony while the sun peaks above the city and sets beneath the Atlantic. Chattering voices on the streets wake you up in the morning, and the cars zipping past lull you to sleep. Jinane, who was born in Taza, Morocco, but raised in the U.S.’s East Coast municipality of Jersey City, made the clear connection of Casablanca to New York City, another place where people pack up their things and move in to follow their dreams: the City that Never Sleeps. However, with this high rate of work and emphasis on success comes pressure that begins at a young age through intense educational standards and socioeconomic hardships.

Sport, particularly football, can act as a special outlet to counteract this pressure for young people in Africa. While limited research exists on the effects sports can have on mental health in the continent, Égide Ferdinand of Kamala International University in Uganda published a review in summer 2024 that affirmed the benefits sport can have on the youth. After reviewing existing literature and empirical research, Ferdinand found that sport reduces risk of chronic health, relieves stress and creates social bonds. While research shows that obstacles do stand in the way, such as lack of infrastructure, high cost of equipment and limited access to development programs, clubs like A.K.A. make it work despite not having the same access to materials that first division clubs in the country, like Sporting Club Casablanca or Wydad AC, do.

As we sat in a circle, the girls explained that though they might feel tired and fatigued on the pitch, the happiness and gratitude outweighs the pain of tough physical work, and even then, the exhaustion that comes with conditioning allows the girls to feel powerful — an almost direct parallel with Ferdinand’s commentary.

At the same time, generational shifts and relationship building are coming to fruition thanks to the girls’ involvement in the club as well.

A handful of the girls agreed that when they first began enjoying football, their mothers had little idea about their football routines. Now, after being involved in the club for some time, the girls say that their mothers now ask them questions about practice to stay involved and often prepare small gestures of love devoted to their training like packing extra snacks or laying out their training gear for when they know it's a day of practice.

Islam

Imane

Mariem

Al Jannat

Ferdous

Fatima-Zahra

Amira

Sara

Ahlam

Jinane Ennasri / Football Case Study

Similar to the 2022 World Cup where mothers were put on display for their on-field support of the Moroccan men’s national team, this additional support found in the home proves that women not only pay attention to football, but they’re encouraging their children to get involved on the pitch now more than ever; an opportunity the mothers themselves may not have gotten when football amongst women was absent in the region. As the team captain Ahlam put it, discussing football is a way to bridge the gap between the pitch and home.

The conversation concluded, and the girls unraveled from our talking circle to begin their training. As I watched, I realized that beside being athletically talented, they were happy, and the gratitude they claimed to have surrounding the sport was on full display. Determination was stained on the girls’ faces as they spent the afternoon doing what they loved most: playing on the pitch that reminded them of their strength, their home and their friendship with one another.

As I wrapped up my conversation with Benchkir, I asked him where he sees the future of women’s football in Morocco. With a pensive expression that morphed into a look of certainty, he said he hopes for two things: for football to be second nature to girls, and for the taboo that women cannot play football to vanish.

Before a match between Morocco and DR Congo on July 9, the team and I stopped in a café just outside of Olympic Stadium in Rabat, Morocco.

The patrons inside, mainly older men, sipped on double shots of espresso while random people in fully fledged red and green Morocco attire from jerseys to flags rushed in to use the communal bathroom key. Tired from a big lunch in Mohammadeia, we took a seat in a booth to wait for the clock’s hands to take a lap around the clock and reach a more suitable position for us to enter the stadium.

Like normal, the door bells behind us chimed to signify new guests entering the cafe, but this time it was a large group that walked in speaking English. Having been used to hearing people speak French and Darija during our trip, we all cranked our necks to discover who this group could be.

Upon introducing ourselves, we realized it was a blend of family, friends and in-laws, some local and some that flew in from around the world, from Scandinavia to North America.

Across the table sat Nora, a Moroccan-Norweigan teenage girl from Oslo who was joined by her Norwegian best friend Lola, Norwegian mother Kristen and family friend Marlam from Canada. On the other side of the table, lost in conversation with one another, was Hicham, Nora’s Moroccan father, and his family that included his relatives of women and men from Morocco.

Though they didn’t have big plans to attend WAFCON when planning their summer holiday, Nora’s aunt in Morocco called them and invited them to the match the day of, and her father insisted they go. Feelings of excitement and pride overwhelmed the table as Nora explained how, like most Moroccans, she felt pride for both her paternal homeland as well as the women’s national team. This WAFCON match stood as the first ever football match the two girls had seen.

However, from her times visiting Morocco, she has noticed plenty of football on the beach, but not a lot of female participation. Kirsten, who met Nora’s father in a Norwegian discotheque back in the day, echoed these observations, but also called a light onto the developments in female empowerment that the country has seen in the last two decades, from football to lifestyle.

Norweigans Nora and Lola had never attended a professional football game until the WAFCON match between Morocco and DR Congo on July 9

Andrea Vílchez / Football Case Study

In agreement, the women were elated to support women’s football, and they stated hopes for greater inclusion of women in the field. But as we spoke, Kristen continued to emphasize speaking with her husband, Hicham, on the matter of football, calling the sport his “bread and butter.”

As the girls began to paint Moroccan flags on each other's faces, I turned to Hicham and we began speaking about the beautiful game that brought us both from different continents and into the same small Moroccan gas station café in Rabat.

Growing up in Morocco, Hicham said that while he played football himself growing up, women who played street football did not exist. Now, on this day in 2025, he was on his way to go watch a match in a sold-out stadium full of fans there specifically for women footballers. As he reflected on the growth of the sport over the last 20 years, he called the rise in participation of young women in football and the mass acceptance from Moroccans, who he said are “football crazy,” good for women but also good for everybody in general. As he spoke, he looked over at his family with an expression of pure hope.

Kirsten, Lola, Nora and Marlam all looked forward to cheering on the Atlas Lionesses
Jinane Ennasri / Football Case Study

Nora paints a Moroccan flag on her mother, Kirsten, in the gas station café where the Football Case Study team met them
Andrea Vílchez / Football Case Study

Nora and Lola walking into Rabat’s Olympic Stadium
Andrea Vílchez / Football Case Study

“[This tournament] will instill a lot of confidence in women,” Hicham predicted. “Young girls watching the match might go pick up a ball after and kick it around with their friends to be like the women … This growth shows that women can succeed in football the same way men can succeed in football — there are no limits.”

We all headed into the match where, after an exciting 100+ minutes on and off the pitch, Morocco reigned victorious over DR Congo.

As I exited the stands and walked beside the exterior of the stadium, the Moroccan bands played live music to continue the celebratory final score. A swarm of people gathered to dance to the national sounds of Morocco, and as I looked into the middle, I spotted Nora and Lola in the middle of the mayhem surrounded by fellow Moroccan fans. The Norwegian girls had bright smiles on their faces as they danced among strangers that turned into family at that exact moment. On the exterior of the pulsating dance circle, packs of girls belonging to numerous youth football clubs across Morocco danced with one another, mirroring each other's two steps in unison the same way they connected passes and covered each other's backs on the pitch.

Youth football clubs from all around Morocco showed up in numbers as Morocco took on DR Congo
Jinane Ennasri / Football Case Study

The Moroccan national women’s team success during WAFCON serves as a point of inspiration for young footballers in the country
Andrea Vílchez / Football Case Study

The scenes reminded me of Hicham’s words that predicted this post-match inspirational energy, where girls would find strength inside the stadium and channel it into confidence outside the stands. Here, as I saw girls dancing freely in the name of football, I realized he was right: there are no limits. —

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