![]() ![]() The keeper's demeanour was unruffled, but his look appeared to say Ahh, you big galoot. His voice didn't carry euphoria, but the moment was drenched in the impact of what he and his national team had achieved.įirst, midfielder Yahya Jabrane burst into the so-called "flash" interview, draped in a Morocco flag, and grabbed Bono so that he could plant a kiss on his cheek. ![]() Player of the Match again, Bono was beaming from ear to ear. " it was delivered with a completely blank face, devoid of any joyful expression, and with a flat, monotone voice that could have been a homage to K-Billy's Super Sounds of the '70s from "Reservoir Dogs" (or the deadpan comedian, Steven Wright, who played him).īy the time Morocco eliminated Portugal? Boy, were things different. And when Bono responded to the first question with "I'm so happy for the team. Players from Muslim countries don't pose with the Budweiser backdrop to their MOTM interviews, so it just looked like any old postmatch interview. This isn't a criticism, mind you: I was 10 feet away from him in the Education City stadium when he was told he'd been named Player of the Match for his solid performance and two penalty saves (from Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets) that eliminated Spain. When you interview this likeable, talented, low-key man, you'll do well to get an anecdote or even see behind his flawless poker face. ![]() I didn't know whether we would get along or indeed whether he would get on with the rest of the squad knowing that he has 'quite a personality.'" I look on it as a great honour to be playing alongside such a wonderful footballer, for club and country, but the day he arrived, I was nervous. "Whatever bothers him bothers me, and likewise with whatever makes him happy, too. "Youssef is like my younger brother," Bono once told me. So down-to-earth and ordinary is he that despite already being a Europa League winner by then, when Youssef En-Nesyri - whose towering leap and headed goal put Morocco into Wednesday's semifinal against France - joined Sevilla, Bono actually worried that the newly arrived striker wouldn't be his friend. However, if there's a defining characteristic about this 31-year-old, who learned to play football on the uphill slope of a Casablanca supermarket parking lot where he and his pals pulled huge garbage containers together to make goalposts, it would be his intense humility. You can choose which of the quirky story elements make a surprise World Cup semifinalist more interesting: the fact that his surname isn't Bono, but Bounou, or that he speaks English with an Arabic accent, but Spanish with a very distinct Argentine accent the fact that the football club he's most passionate about is Buenos Aires giants River Plate the fact that prior to this competition, his greatest fame concerning penalties was shouting the made-up word " Kiricocho!" at Erling Haaland to try to deter the Norwegian star from scoring the fact that this Moroccan man was actually born not only in a different country, but continent (Montreal, Canada) or that his dog sounds as if he's named after a Disney mermaid but actually isn't. Meanwhile, Morocco, already the first Arabic and first African nation to compete in a World Cup semifinal, have also seen Bono beaten by only an own goal, when he was beaten by teammate Nayef Aguerd against Canada. ![]() Somewhat spooky is the fact that Italy met Zinedine Zidane's France in Berlin, 16 years ago, having conceded only an own goal on their way to the final (Cristian Zaccardo against the US). It's also true that the last team to reach a World Cup semifinal having conceded just once in five tournament matches - Bono and Morocco's current record - had Buffon in goal, in 2006, as Italy (2-0, 1-1, 2-0, 1-0, 3-0 against Ghana, United States, Czech Republic, Australia and Ukraine) eventually won the tournament that year. World Cup 2022: News and features | Schedule | Bracket The mop of dark hair, the chiselled profile, the facial skin tone, identical height and their big, rangy frames evoke outdoorsmen who could, back in the day, have built a cabin, fenced a ranch and wrangled horses or run logs down river in midwinter. The Morocco goalkeeper, who needs just one more of his already legendary performances in Qatar to propel the Atlas Lions into the World Cup final, isn't quite Buffon's twin, but they could easily be brothers. Up close, there are hints of Gianluigi Buffon about Yassine "Bono" Bounou. Yassine 'Bono' Bounou embodies the humility and spirit of Morocco's magical World Cup run You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser ![]()
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