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Rabat — Ilyas El Maliki has been fun to watch during the live streams of Morocco’s games in the Kings World Cup Nations.
Gerard Pique, a former FC Barcelona player, chose El Maliki to lead the Moroccan delegation but he was unable to travel along with the squad to Italy after he was sentenced to four months in prison for defamation and public indecency.
However, good news broke out the day the national team touched down in Milan after the El Jadida court sentenced him to two months in prison suspended. Ilyas has purged three already.
Videos online show a huge crowd welcoming El Maliki back as he walks out of prison, and escorts him all the way from the detention center to his house chanting, lighting up pyros, and setting off fireworks.
The Kings League kicked off but the game against Colombia was a disaster. The Moroccan players were lost on the field and couldn’t even mount attacks from the back.
The Moroccan players said after the game that they were still clueless about the rudiments and intricacies of this video-games-like football competition. They added that they had not had enough time to set up a camp to prepare thoroughly for the competition. They played one friendly game against Ukraine and won 6-5.
However, the loss in the first game was offset by an enjoyable live stream on El Maliki’s Kick channel.
The popular streamer brought along “Dqayqiya,” a typical Moroccan musical band, to add a touch of pop tunes to the live show. El Maliki can also be seen wearing different traditional attires representing Morocco’s various cultures in every game.
In the following matches, Morocco pummeled Ukraine 9-2 and went on to clinch a hard-fought 4-2 victory against Japan.
The Moroccan team qualified to the quarterfinals to take on the United States in a high-stakes game. It was reported that both teams bad-mouthed each other during the warm-up session. It was a thrilling game and ended in a 7-7 draw at the end of regular time, and both teams progressed to breath-stopping penalty shootouts.
At the end of the game, Morocco won 2-1 on penalties and is now set to meet Colombia – again – in the semi-finals.
Moving from Milan to El Jadida, a vast crowd gathered in front of El Maliki’s house. They chanted, shouted his name, and lit up pyros while the popular streamer greeted them from his bedroom window.
Kings League’s fans and other streamers from across the world were baffled by how entertaining the streamer is.
One user wrote on X: “Ilyas is a one-off. You tune into the livestream and you see him dancing and singing. And all of a sudden, he starts praying and reciting the Quran. I even started to understand the Moroccan dialect from just watching his streams. What a guy!”
Another user from Saudi is proud of this historical achievement, saying: “Moroccan national team qualified to the semi-final in the 2022 Qatar World Cup, and now they are onto the semi-finals of the Kings World Cup Nations. Dima Maghrib!”
In a recent live stream, Ilyas El Maliki said that if Morocco wins the title, a $10,000 cash prize will go towards Said Aouni (AKA Lawla Dorof), an amateur football player, and the rest will be allocated to rebuilding the quake-hit mosques in the Haouz region and to digging wells in the drought-stricken villages.
