With South African coach Rulani Mokwena poised to be in charge of Wydad Casablanca at the 2025 FIFA Club World, Soccer Laduma analyzes whether he can do better than his predecessor at the tournament.
Mokwena looks increasingly likely to be at helm, especially if Wydad qualifies for the CAF Champions League, when The Red Castle will be returning to the Club World Cup in mid-June.
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Having won the CAF Champions League three times, the Moroccan giants have appeared twice at the global club tournament, although on both occasions the competition still had had only seven teams participating.
Before the expanded Club World Cup in June in the United States of America, with 32 teams in a group format, Wydad had appeared at the 2017 and 2022 editions, after they lifted the continent titles at the end of those seasons.
The other time Wydad won the CAF Champions League was in 1992 but the Club World Cup was yet to be formed, after it debuted only from the year 2000.
So pressure will be on Mokwena to ensure that Wydad do not add the numbers at the expanded tournament, even though the Moroccan giants are in a tough group, that has Manchester City, who qualified after they won the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League.
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The Red Castle will also face Juventus in the group stages, who qualified via a ranking path and United Arab Emirates outfit Al Ain, who won the 2022/23 AFC Champions League.
In the two editions they competed at the Club World Cup, Wydad are yet to reach the semi-finals or progress to the next round by playing (as they got a bye to the second round on both occasions) after a 1-0 loss to Pachuca of Mexico in the second round and a 3-2 defeat to Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds in a match for fifth place in 2017.
After returning to the Club World Cup in 2022, The Red Castle also lost their first game, in the second round of the tournament, a 5-3 defeat on penalties to Saudi Arabian giants Al Hilal after a 1-1 draw in extra-time.
Wydad only played one game at the 2022 edition of the CWC, after a match for fifth place was scrapped.
Getting out of the group would be an achievement for Mokwena as that would make him the first Wydad coach to qualify into the next round of a Club World Cup tournament by winning on the pitch.
