He left two weeks after the final. The European press framed it as inevitable. The framing missed the point.
Walid Regragui was always going to leave the Morocco job after AFCON. Either with a trophy and on his own terms, or without one and on slightly more contested terms. The result of the final, and what it took to produce that result, made the second outcome instead of the first. But the structure of his departure was set before the tournament began.
He took Morocco to a World Cup semi-final. He took them to an AFCON final on home soil. He built a squad that produced the most coherent African football performance of the past decade. Whatever happens to Morocco at the 2026 World Cup, the foundation he built will still be visible.
The European press cannot help framing his departure as failure. He did not win the trophy. The trophy was the goal. The goal was not met. Therefore he is leaving because he failed. The logic is clean and the logic is wrong.
What he actually said is that the team needs a new lease of life before the World Cup. The translation that came through to most European outlets was that he was burned out. The original meaning was different. He said that a squad that has lived through what this squad has just lived through needs distance from the coach who led them through it. The relationship between this group of players and this coach has produced everything it can produce. The next phase needs a different relationship.
This is sophisticated football thinking. It is also rare. Most coaches do not leave at the right moment. Most coaches stay until the federation removes them. Regragui has done what very few coaches have ever done, which is to recognize the limit of his own usefulness and step away before reaching it.
He will be back. Probably at a top European club within two years. The European press will then write profiles framing him as having always been undervalued. The undervaluation will continue to be the press's, not his.