"The longest nine minutes of my life." Like all her friends gathered at her home on Thursday, August 3, to watch the match between Morocco and Colombia, Sophia experienced the match with a lump in her stomach. The nine minutes of extra time at the end of the match were followed by relief: a victory (1-0) and a historic qualification for the last 16 of the Women's World Cup, where they will face France. "It was very stressful, because we had to wait for Germany to be eliminated. I hadn't felt so happy since the Lions' victory over Portugal," said the young woman, who works for a transport company in Casablanca, Morocco.

Staying in the World Cup for longer than the US, Germany ,and Brazil is a remarkable achievement in Morocco, where the women's team's success echoes that of the men's team at the World Cup in Qatar in December 2022. "But now it's women, that changes a lot of things," explained Leila, a long-time supporter who works in communications. "The time difference certainly played a part [the match was broadcast at 11 am in Morocco], but when the final whistle sounded, the Lionesses' victory wasn't celebrated in the streets, as was the case with the men in Qatar. Women and football, it's still very new in Morocco."

"We've come a long way," said Nasser Larguet, Morocco's national technical director between 2014 and 2019. "When I took up my post, women's football wasn't taken seriously. It was dealt with by a commission that included futsal and beach football. At every meeting, it was the last subject dealt with." This prominent figure in Moroccan football, now Saudi Arabia's national technical director, looked back at the progress achieved: "I told Fouzi Lekjaa [the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation] I wanted to create a commission dedicated to women's football, and he supported me."

The changes included the introduction of a girls' section in each regional league and the gradual creation of U17 and U20 sections. The establishment in 2017 of a sports study program has also enabled early talent to be detected "from the age of 12," Larguet explained. "They trained twice a day at the Mohammed VI national complex near Rabat – at 7 am and then at 4 pm, with time in between for school." Among the players he came across were several future Lionesses who would go on to compete in the World Cup, including defender Zineb Redouani and striker Sofia Bouftini.

"Today, clubs are snapping up the girls who come through the system," noted a specialist in women's football who wished to remain anonymous. "The league has been professionalized since 2020, and players now have contracts and are paid by the Federation, a minimum of 3,500 dirhams [€326] a month in the first division. With the club chipping in, some girls manage to earn up to 8,000 dirhams [€746]." It's still a long way from the six-figure salaries of male players, but "there's a political will to help develop women's football, even if there's still a lot of work to be done." And the specialist feels that the departure of striker Ibtissam Jraidi to Saudi Arabia in December heralds further expatriations of female players after the World Cup.

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