What Is the History of Raja Casablanca?

On December 18, 2013, Ronaldinho scored a free kick against Raja Casablanca. It was the sort of moment that usually puts a smaller club back in its place. Instead, Raja scored twice more. The Moroccan side beat Atlético Mineiro 3–1 and reached the Club World Cup final.

That night offers a quick answer to what is the history of Raja Casablanca? The club began in 1949 in working-class Darb Sultan, grew into a three-time African champion, and built a following that expects its team to play with nerve. In 2013, the rest of the world got a look.

Chris Horwedel opens the Why We Love This Club episode “Raja Club Athletic — The Club That Made Hope Loud” with that semifinal. He has a good reason. Start with Ronaldinho, and the trip back to a Casablanca neighborhood feels much shorter.

What is the history of Raja Casablanca’s founding?

Raja Club Athletic was founded on March 20, 1949, in Darb Sultan. Workers and traders filled the district. Morocco was still under French rule, and the club’s organizers included Moroccans active in the nationalist movement and local civic life.

Football gave them a way to build something of their own. A club could gather neighbors around a team and give them a name to carry across the city. They chose Raja, Arabic for “hope.” Morocco would not gain independence until 1956.

It would be too neat to say everyone at the founding shared one political plan. They had a football team to start. Still, place and date matter. In colonial Casablanca, a Moroccan club rooted in a Moroccan neighborhood meant more than its next fixture.

Wydad Athletic Club had been founded in 1937, with its own history under the protectorate. Raja came later. It grew beside another major club and found its own voice, rather than arriving as the city’s first answer to colonial rule.

Why is Raja called the People’s Club?

Raja’s nickname, the People’s Club, fits where it began. It also fits what its supporters came to ask of the players. Winning mattered, of course. So did how they won.

The team became known for quick passing, dribbling and attacking play. Supporters called the approach the Raja school. Horwedel describes it as an expectation rather than a fixed formation. His test is plain: “A Raja team would not merely collect points.”

That sounds demanding. It is. A coach can earn a win and still hear that the football was too cautious. Fans who have watched a brilliant passing move know exactly what they want to see again, even if explaining it across a café table takes longer than the move itself.

Abdelmajid Dolmy helped give that ideal a face. A midfielder who spent almost all his playing career at Raja, he was part of Morocco’s team at the 1986 World Cup. Horwedel calls him “the maestro.” His gift was reading a match early enough to make a difficult choice look easy.

The nickname also lives in the stands. Raja’s support reaches well beyond Darb Sultan, while keeping the neighborhood in its story. At Stade Mohammed V, green flags and songs make a shared city stadium feel like Raja’s place for the night.

How did Raja win Africa three times?

The first Moroccan league title came in 1988. Raja followed it by winning the 1989 African Cup of Champions Clubs, the forerunner of today’s CAF Champions League. MC Oran won one leg of the final, 1–0. Raja won the other by the same score. Raja won the shootout, 4–2.

A first league title followed by an African title is a brisk education. Raja proved it was no brief streak in 1997, winning the newly named CAF Champions League. Ghana’s Goldfields won the first leg, 1–0. Raja returned the favor in Casablanca and won on penalties.

The third title, in 1999, was the hardest to watch from the stands. Raja’s home match against Espérance of Tunis ended 0–0. In the return, captain Abdellatif Jrindou was sent off after Espérance received a penalty. Goalkeeper Mustapha Chadli saved the kick.

Ten-man Raja held the match scoreless. Then came another shootout. Chadli saved Espérance’s last attempt. Raja then won 4–3 on penalties. The club had won Africa three times in 11 years; two of those finals had required its supporters to sit through every kick.

The titles also opened a door elsewhere. Raja played in the first FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil in 2000. They lost all three group matches. One was a 3–2 game against Real Madrid. A loss is still a loss. Yet scoring twice against Madrid gave Raja’s players a taste of the company they wanted to keep.