The Raja Casablanca is one of the most important teams of Moroccan soccer. Together with Wydad, they are the two biggest Casablanca teams loved by the inhabitants of the economic capital and the rest of the cities of the Kingdom.
The club of Raja was founded in Derb Soultan, the famous popular district of Casablanca, by a group of resistance fighters and trade unions. Among them was Mahjoub Ben Seddik, founder of the General Labor Union, the first trade union in the history of Morocco, which is why most of the members were from the poor class. Since its foundation in 1949, the club has been the voice and the team of the people, as its supporters call it. They also call it the Raja International, the green eagles and the green devils.
FIFA ranked it 10th in the world in the year 2000, following its good performance in the Club World Cup. Moreover, the African Football Confederation ranked it third among the best African clubs of the 20th century.
The name of the club is linked to Father Jégo, the spiritual father of soccer in Morocco and one of the founders of Wydad, whom he left after disagreements with the officials, and decided to coach the green team which will become, through the years, the first opponent of Wydad. Father Jégo spent more than 10 years with the Raja, and left it only two years before his death.
The team is in the green color, in reference to the five-pointed star in the Moroccan flag, and the eagle for its pride and glory.
The Raja is a legendary team, not only because of its professional players whose talent is attested by friends and enemies, but also because of their supporters and their Ultras, known as the Green Boys. They wrote several cheering songs, the most famous being “F Bladi Dalmouni” (I was oppressed in my country), and painted several beautiful Tifos in the stadiums.
The team’s fans are so numerous that Casablanca’s people call them “locusts”.
The Raja’s name is associated with several skilled players who have marked the history of Moroccan soccer, including the late Abdelmajid Dolmy, Hicham Aboucherouane, Salaheddine Bassir, Talal El Karkouri, Youssef Safri, Mustafa Petchou, Mustapha El Haddaoui, Mohsine Moutaouali…
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