Montreal’s Moroccan community celebrates World Cup match win vs Canada

Montreal’s Moroccan community came together Thursday to watch their team’s World Cup match vs Canada.

And they weren’t disappointed. Morocco beating Canada 2-1.

Decked out in their gear and packing viewing parties, like at Café Amistad in St-Leonard.

“This is a great joy for us and thank God we are able to make al other Arabs happy with this win, and I hope Morocco keeps doing better in the next round,” said one soccer fan in Arabic.

“I am very happy. I am proud of Morocco. Yes, I’m happy. The people are happy,” added another fan.

According to Stats Canada, Montreal has about 37,000 people of Moroccan descent living in the city. Many of them in the Little Maghreb neighbourhood – known to have newcomers from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia – immigrants moving to there since the 1990s.

Already eliminated after their 4-1 loss to Croatia on Sunday, Canada was looking for their first ever win at the World Cup and tried to play spoiler against Morocco – who needed at least a draw to advance.

This is Canada’s first time back to the tournament since 1986, but many in the Moroccan community say they only had one team to left to root for.

“I’m proud of being Moroccan. I am proud of being Arabian. I am proud of my nationality. For now they represent us and we represent all the Muslim world. And I think we will do well in the next round,” said a soccer fan at Café Amistad.

“We’ve always been the best. It’s our time to shine. It’s our time to show we’ve always been the best,” added another.

(CREDIT: Farah Mustapha/OMNI News)Nourredine Hellar, 37, who is Algerian and the manager of Café 5 Juillet, said he asked more people than usual to work on Thursday because he expected his café to be packed.

“The match is at 10 a.m., and by 6 a.m. you won’t find an empty seat in the café. We will be ready.”

With files from The Canadian Press