WYDAD V RAJA
ON BOTH SIDES
CLASSIC ENCOUNTERS
2001
Sep 29
Wydad’s Youssef Belkhouja
has a heart attack and dies on the pitch
during the 100th derby.2006
May 24
Abdellatif Jrindou puts
Raja ahead with a penalty that would have
been enough to win the league – until a
94th-minute long-range equaliser from
Hicham Louissi means that the title goes to
Wydad instead.PERE JEGO
l (coach) 1940-52
l (coach) 1955-68MOUHCINE IAJOUR
l 2003-07, 2012-14, 2017-19
l 2010-12OSCAR FULLONE
l (coach) 1998-2000, 2005-06
l (coach) 2002-03, 2008FAOUZI BENZARTI
l (coach) 2013-14
l (coach) 2018, 2018-19A
lthough they share the Stade
Mohammed V in the heart of
Casablanca, there is little else
that fans of the two Moroccan
giants believe they have in common.
Originally the team of the middle-
classes, Wydad Athletic Club – Wydad
means “love” in Arabic – are the
country’s most successful side, with
last season’s league championship
being their 20th. Yet as their
working-class rivals Raja Club Athletic
will readily point out, WAC won five of
those titles prior to 1956 and are the
only team to have their titles from the
colonial era recognised by the Royal
Moroccan Football Federation.
Although Raja trail behind with 11
league wins, they have the braggingrights on the continental stage – with
three African club championships to
Wydad’s two – and are the only Arab
club to reach the Final of the Club World
Cup, losing to Bayern Munich in 2013.
And yet for two teams with such
differing backgrounds, their early days
are both linked to one man: Mohamed
Ben Lahcen Affani, who was better
known as “Pere Jego”.
A former journalist, he helped
found Wydad in 1937 and as coach
led the team to four domestic league
titles, three North African titles and
one North African Cup while surviving
two assassination attempts. He left
after falling out with club directors –
and later became coach of Raja, who
had been formed six years earlier.RI V^ ALS
Of all the games, in all the towns, in all the world...the Casablanca derby
NEXT ISSUE ON SALE DECEMBER 27
Intense...Raja (left)
and Wydad compete
in the December
2005 derbyDerby day...Raja fans
light flares at the Wydad