Rachid Outamghart can hardly believe the turn his life has taken. Since November 2022, the 20-year-old Moroccan has travelled internationally, developed a new set of skills and made a ton of friends. All of it thanks to volunteering in football. Having always been an avid football fan, the student took the opportunity to volunteer at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™. He has not looked back since. In fact, the experience was so enriching that Rachid did not hesitate for even a second before applying to volunteer at the next major FIFA event, the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2022™, which took place in his home country. Two events in three months says it all.

“I learned how to work in a team; I learned teamwork. I didn’t have this skill before,” said the young man, who first worked as part of Spectator Services in Qatar before taking up a role as part of Guest Operations at the FIFA Club World Cup™, which took place in February this year. “I benefited a lot from working in a team. I learned how much it means to give others a chance to give their opinions about how to do a task,” Rachid added. Specifically, his role at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 required him to offer mobility assistance to people in and around the iconic Lusail Stadium, which hosted the final as well as nine other matches. It gave him a profound insight into how a team operates best. “I learned how we could work together in our position to help everyone,” he said. “If we saw someone having trouble, we would go and help them. We always worked as a team, not as individuals.” As one of 20,000 volunteers representing 150 nations, this constant interaction with team mates had another major advantage for him as he was studying English at university. “In terms of my confidence before Qatar, I wasn’t even able to speak much English, just a little bit. In Morocco, we don’t use English as much because our second language after Arabic is French,” explained Rachid. “But Qatar gave me the chance to talk English and improve that skill.” The fact that Morocco reached the semi-finals (making it the first-ever African nation to do so) only increased the sense of joy Rachid carried with him everywhere he went in Qatar. “When you said to someone you were from Morocco, they would say, ‘Yeah! Morocco is in the semi-finals!’,” the Agadir resident said with a beaming smile. “They all wanted to come visit us in Morocco.”

It seems that there will be a warm welcome for anyone who does make the trip over to see Rachid. The student, who has always loved helping people and been involved in social work from the very start of his time at university, is now surrounded by a large and nurturing group of FIFA volunteer friends. “I’m still in touch with all of the Moroccans I’ve worked with as a volunteer. We’ve been like family since we created a group chat,” Rachid said, before explaining that this new group of buddies played a big role in encouraging him to go ahead and volunteer for the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2022. “It’s something I really appreciate. If you had told me one month ago that I would make friends that would feel like friends I’ve had for a long time, I would have said that it wasn’t possible,” laughed Rachid.

Motivated by these experiences, the young Moroccan is already looking forward to applying for future FIFA volunteering opportunities. His excitement is palpable when he considers what volunteering at a third FIFA event in ten months would be like, and with whom he might become friends this time around. “Hopefully I get to do it all again soon. I’m in love with volunteering for FIFA,” he said with a smile. “If someone is considering joining the FIFA Volunteer Community, I would say go for it because you will have the opportunity to be part of the biggest events in the world. You will meet amazing people from all different backgrounds, and of course get to contribute to the success and joy of the beautiful game. Not only is it fun and rewarding, but also a great way to develop your skills, personality and values.”