Morocco's former international player Larbi Chicha dies at 86

Former Moroccan international football player Larbi Chicha died Sunday in Kenitra at the age of 86, the Mohammed VI Foundation of Sports Champions announced.

Larbi Chicha made his debut at the Moroccan Sports Union and Racing Casablanca before embarking on a professional career. 

He also wore the jersey of the national team on several occasions and was among the best players of the A team created in 1957, alongside Larbi Benmbarek and Kacem Al Kacimi.

The deceased also wore the jersey of Olympique de Marseille in the mid-fifties, a club where Larbi Benmbarek had also played for five years, before joining Strasbourg and the Paris-based club Red Star.

After this professional experience, Larbi Chicha returned to Morocco where he took the reins of several local clubs such as Hassania Agadir, AS Salé, CODM and Renaissance Settat, before coaching clubs in Saudi Arabia, Belgium and Switzerland.

He also took up the pen as a sports journalist for French-speaking newspaper Al Maghrib where he wrote several stories on national football.