Achraf Hakimi is an attacking right-back for Paris Saint-Germain and Morocco, renowned for his blistering pace and overlapping runs. He was central to Morocco's historic run to the 2022 World Cup semi-finals and won the Champions League with PSG in 2025.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Key to Morocco becoming the first African team to reach a World Cup semi-final in 2022.
The favourites dominate the headlines, but World Cups are often defined by the teams nobody expected. We look at four dark horses for 2026, Morocco, Croatia, Uruguay and Japan, and why each could go further than the bookmakers suggest.