After Ajax’s clear victory over Fortuna Sittard (4-1), marked by goals from the club’s young Belgian talents, Toby Alderweireld delivered a very clear message regarding Rayane Bounida (19 years old), the Belgian-Moroccan winger whose progress raises questions about his international future. <\/p>\n
In an interview with ESPN Nederland (published on February 16, 2026), the former central defender, who played for Ajax and is a figure of the Red Devils, praised Bounida’s current form, while reminding that the transition to the very highest level also requires an athletic dimension, especially in a Belgian team that does not always play in a possession context comparable to that of Amsterdam.<\/p>\n
However, it is particularly on the Belgium-Morocco choice that his intervention drew attention. Bounida has already worn the jersey of the Belgian youth teams, while remaining eligible for Morocco due to his origins. For Alderweireld, such a decision should not be guided by a logic of opportunity or playing time.<\/p>\n
In the excerpt published by ESPN, the former Belgian international summarizes his advice in a simple idea: make a choice \u201cwith feeling,\u201d based on identity and belonging, and not as \u201ca step\u201d in a career.<\/p>\n
The message is clear: if the player feels closer to one country than the other, that feeling should take precedence, not calculations about the likelihood of being called up, starting, or being exposed. A rare reminder, counter to the usual debates on social media, often reduced to a simple sports projection.<\/p>\n
Alderweireld also expanded his reflection to other young Belgians at Ajax, urging each to focus on their club progression, during a time when news and performances can quickly accelerate\u2026 or blur trajectories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After Ajax’s clear victory over Fortuna Sittard (4-1), marked by goals from the club’s young Belgian talents, Toby Alderweireld delivered a very clear message regarding Rayane Bounida (19 years old), the Belgian-Moroccan winger whose progress raises questions about his international future. In an interview with ESPN Nederland (published on February 16, 2026), the former central<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1044],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-335878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-netherlands"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335880,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335878\/revisions\/335880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}