Visit 26 world football stars in 26 days and in 26 different countries: this is the challenge that Moroccan blogger Saad Abid has set to support his country's bid to host the 2026 World Cup, an initiative that has already led him to meet with Samuel Eto'o and Andrés Iniesta.
Abid conceived the project, called 'Maymkench ("impossible") 2026', in response to "people who say that we cannot host the World Cup," and aims to gather the collaboration of footballers from around the world to "give a new boost to the candidacy".
He wants to do it literally, as he carries an deflated ball that represents the "negative attitude" of Moroccans, and he wants to inflate it with the help of players he meets during his journey.
Each of the stars that appear in Abid's videos will have a double task: 'blow' in front of the camera to symbolically fill the ball and 'nominate' two other footballers to pick up the baton.
Abid started his journey in Konya, Turkey, where the Cameroonian Samuel Eto'o currently plays for the local team, Konyaspor, which is one of the ambassadors that the Moroccan candidacy has on its payroll.
#MAYMKENCH2026 - Samuel Eto'o's breath: https://t.co/q67kfRB4d9 via @YouTube
- Saadabidofficiel (@Saaido) May 7, 2018
In turn, Eto'o 'nominated' Barcelona players Andrés Iniesta and Lionel Messi, so the blogger then traveled to the Catalan capital.
There, he recorded, accompanied by the Spanish midfielder, his second video, published on Abid's Facebook page, in which Iniesta blows as well and proposes two new 'nominated': Spanish David de Gea and Brazilian Ronaldinho.
#MAYMKENCH2026 - Andrés Iniesta's breath: https://t.co/JJptGKiV9w via @YouTube
- Saadabidofficiel (@Saaido) May 7, 2018
"Morocco is a great country (...) I haven't had the opportunity to go many times, but I would like to go and be able to know it," says Iniesta in the recording.
The Maghreb country has applied for the fifth time as a candidate to host a World Cup, and its opponent is the joint candidacy made up of the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The decision will be made on June 13, the eve of the start of the World Cup in Russia, at the FIFA Congress in Moscow, through a vote in which all national federations (207 in total, once the candidates are excluded) will have the right to vote.