MOROCCO forward Brahim Diaz has expressed how much pain he is still feeling the day after he played a significant role in his side’s 1-0 defeat to Senegal in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final in Rabat.
The Real Madrid star had a chance to write his name into Moroccan history after winning a controversial penalty in the eighth minute of second-half added time with the tense final still goalless.
It was a golden opportunity to end his country’s 50-year wait to lift the AFCON trophy.
But Diaz, whose five goals had steered the hosts to the final, tried a ‘Panenka’ chipped penalty, which backfired horribly.
Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy stood his ground and caught the ball in embarrassingly simple fashion.
The Teranga Lions scored four minutes into extra-time through Pape Gueye to win their second AFCON title, leaving Diaz red faced.
“My soul hurts. I dreamed of this title thanks to all the love you all gave me, every message, every show of support that made me feel I wasn’t alone. I fought with everything I had, with my heart above all else,” Diaz wrote on social media today.
“Yesterday I failed and I take full responsibility. I apologise from the bottom of my heart.
“It will be hard for me to recover, because this wound doesn’t heal easily… but I will try. Not for myself, but for everyone who believed in me and for everyone who suffered with me.
“I will keep going forward until one day I can give you all this love back and become a source of pride for my Moroccan people.”
Diaz, who is the tournament’s top scorer with five goals, looked distraught as it began to sink in what he had done.
Later, television cameras zoomed in on him on the Morocco bench, after he had been substituted in extra time, holding back tears.
The Real Madrid attacker had been made to wait around 17 minutes to take the kick after the majority of Senegal’s players, including Mendy, marched off the pitch in protest at the award of the penalty.
“He had a lot of time before taking the penalty which must have disturbed him,” said Morocco head coach Walid Regragui.
“But we can’t change what happened. That is how he chose to take the penalty. We need to look forwards now.”