Take me to your Leader: Achraf Hakimi

Morocco's Hakimi has become the face of an evolving national team, yet the unresolved sexual assault allegations against him make him a deeply compromised figure.

Morocco – the last African country left in the 2026 World Cup after Egypt was the victim of some dubious refereeing against Argentina in the Round of 16 – play France today. They will be led by Achraf Hakimi, the right back from French football club, Paris Saint-Germain.

Following its unprecedented success – the first African country to reach the semifinals of a World Cup – in Qatar 2022, the team has faced some headwinds in recent times. First they were involved in unsportsmanlike behavior (remember “Towelgate”) throughout AFCON in January 2026, lost the final to Senegal on the field, but was awarded it by CAF months later, then the national federation fired the coach who took them to the World Cup semifinal and the AFCON final, and, finally, a number of key national team players retired. Yet, one of the constants fans of the Atlas Lions could rely on was Hakimi’s form and his position as captain.

Hakimi was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1998, to working class Moroccan immigrant parents. He started his professional career in Real Madrid’s B in 2016, before being promoted to the first team the next season, where he won a UEFA Champions League title and a World Club Cup. However, after a few games, he was loaned out to Borussia Dortmund and then to Inter Milan where he won a Serie A title, before PSG signed him three years later. He has won two Champions League titles back-to-back with PSG since.

His success is not limited to club football. He has become closely identified with Morocco’s meteoric rise in international football, as the Atlas Lions are no longer seen as underdogs but as genuine contenders expected to perform well at major tournaments. Hakimi is also one of the poster children for Morocco’s aggressive recruitment of players from its diaspora, a strategy that has brought the national team considerable success in recent years, including winning the 2025 Arab Cup, claiming bronze at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, and capturing its first-ever Under-20 World Cup title in 2025.

Hakimi became known as “The Pride of Morocco” ever since his game-winning penalty kick against Spain in Qatar.

Hakimi has spoken openly about never feeling at home in Spain during his youth. Speaking on The Bridge podcast, which is hosted by French footballer Aurélien Tchouaméni, in April, Hakimi explained about how Spain called him for a training camp with the national team: “I went, I tried it, and I didn’t feel comfortable with Spain.” He feels deeply connected to his roots and his family. “I was born in Spain, but I grew up in an Arab home with an Islamic culture. I am proud to represent Morocco; this is my country, my origins, and my culture.”

He is not alone; of Morocco’s World Cup squad, 19 of the 26 players picked were born outside of Morocco, mostly in France, Belgium and The Netherlands, where rightwing anti-immigrant political parties and media stigmatize the children of Moroccan immigrants.

As a result, Morocco made history at the 2026 World Cup by becoming the first national team to field eleven foreign-born players on the pitch simultaneously in a match; against Brazil in group play.​

He hasn’t shied away from taking unpopular political stances. As a result, he’s been subject to racist abuse from fans and elected officials in Europe. While playing for Borussia Dortmund in Germany in 2020, Hakimi revealed a celebration with teammate Jadon Sancho that read “Justice For George Floyd.” Afterwards he stated, “I don’t care if you’re a black guy, a white guy, if you have money, if you don’t have money, I don’t care. I think everybody needs to be the same, and get the same justice.”

In France, he was criticized by rightwing politicians when he told L’Equipe he was comfortable in Paris due to the large Arab and Muslim diasporas living there. Julien Odoul, a member of the National Rally (RN), which glorifies French colonialism and blames immigrants for France’s economic and social ills, wrote on social media: “When foreigners feel ‘at home’ with us, the French feel like foreigners in their own country. Stopping immigration is a challenge for civilization.” Hakimi did not take the bait like he did when Spanish trolls racially abused him for celebrating Morocco’s win over Spain in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

While the Moroccan government has normalized relations with Israel, Hakimi’s position is more in line with that of the Moroccan public. In 2021, following Israel’s attacks against Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, he tweeted #FreePalestine. When PSG played Israeli clubs, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa, in the Champions League or when Hakimi understood his role; he emphasized that footballers are not just athletes but individuals navigating public scrutiny, expectations, and personal growth. Based on all this, the image one would take is that he is focused and respectful of everyone around him’s human rights.

Since March 2023, ​Hakimi has faced preliminary charges of rape. At the time, a 24-year-old woman said she was raped by him in his home in a Paris suburb. His lawyer accused his alleged victim of extortion. PSG’s manager at the time, Christophe Galtier, refused to answer questions on the topic and still selected him for games. The club’s owners also stood by him. “I have the full support of my club because they know what I’m like,” when he was taken in for questioning. He was banned from contacting his alleged victim but allowed to leave French territory.

Kylian Mbappe, his former PSG teammate and one of the world’s best footballers, defended Hakimi when interviewed by investigators in 2023. Mbappé said Hakimi confided in him that there had been mutual touching, “He felt no refusal.” He claimed that Hakimi and the woman ultimately “did not sleep together,” and defended Hakimi’s character: “He respects women. Even drunk, I’ve never seen him act inappropriately.” The support for Hakimi didn’t end at PSG among football people. Walid Regragui, Morocco’s coach at the time, also publicly supported Hakimi.

Two months before the 2026 World Cup, news broke that Hakimi and more than seventy other Serie A footballers, past and present, including Olivier Giroud, Rafael Leão, and Alessandro Bastoni, had used a prostitution ring in Milan. Under Italian law, paying for prostitution is not a crime, however.

Then during the World Cup, on July 19th, the French Appeal Court announced Hakimi meanwhile will stand trial on rape charges. Hakimi had previously appealed the charges against him. No trial date has been set yet.

The day of the the court announcement, Morocco played Scotland. Opposing fans booed Hakimi . When asked about it after the match, Morocco’s coach Mohamed Ouahbi said: “He was good [on the field], I don’t know why we need to talk about management or other such things.”

Sexual assault seems to be widespread among professional footballers. Several have been jailed. Robinho, Dani Alves and Santi Mina, are some of the prominent cases. And footballers accused of sexual assault have often appeared to receive the benefit of the doubt, whether from the criminal justice system, from football authorities or in the court of public opinion. In Hakimi’s case, he has neither lost major commercial sponsorships nor the backing of his club. Since being charged with rape in France, he was named African Player of the Year in 2025 and finished sixth in the Ballon d’Or voting that same year.

Hakimi is also not the only player at this World Cup to face sexual assault allegations or charges. Canada reportedly denied entry to Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey to play a group match against Panama in Toronto, allegedly for lying on a visa application about the sexual assault charges against him in the UK. Partey is due to stand trial in 2027. Nevertheless, Partey played in Ghana’s remaining two group matches and its last game in the Round of 32 held in the US.

Japan’s Kaishu Sano, who appeared in two group matches and scored the opening goal in Japan’s Round of 32 loss to Brazil, was arrested in 2024 on suspicion of allegedly sexually assaulting a woman with two other men at a Tokyo hotel. Prosecutors ultimately declined to prosecute him after reaching a settlement with the complainant, and the Japan Football Association described the incident as a “personal mistake.” His national team coach, Hajime Moriyasu, made similar-sounding comments. Sano’s continued presence in the national team has prompted public criticism in Japan.

Brazilian star Neymar Jr., another former teammate of Hakimi at PSG, also faced rape allegations in 2019. The complaint was dropped after prosecutors cited insufficient evidence, while Neymar maintained he was the victim of an attempted extortion. Separately, Nike ended its sponsorship of Neymar after concluding that his response to a separate allegation of sexual assault by a Nike employee warranted terminating the relationship. Cristiano Ronaldo was accused of raping a woman in Las Vegas in 2009. The civil case was privately settled, criminal charges were never filed, and his career appears to have suffered few lasting consequences. Finally, Cape Verde captain Ryan Mendes faces a police investigation over a sexual assault during a FIFA-approved warm-up tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, in March 2026.

FIFA responded to a query on the Mendes case by telling The Athletic that it “takes any allegation of misconduct extremely seriously.” On Hakimi’s case, or any of the others, FIFA hasn’t said anything specific.