With an average points per game of 2.36, he is on a trend that has only been surpassed in the history of the national championship since independence twice: by the previous year's champion, Raja of Casablanca, which holds the absolute record with 2.46 points per game, and by its runner-up, AS FAR, which finished last season in second place with an average of 2.37 points.
This reminder allows us to situate the level of the exploit of the team dear to the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, Mr. Fouzi Lekjaa. This is not his only source of satisfaction; his favorite club is also shining this season in the CAF Cup.
Among the four qualifying groups for the quarter-finals of the competition, it is the only club which is a hit: it has recorded three victories over the first three days.
Despite its privileged place in the hierarchy of Moroccan football, a position that the club has occupied for several years now, the Renaissance Sportive de Berkane is a newcomer to the national elite.
He survived for a long time in the lower divisions, with the exception of a vice-championship in 1983 and a finalist status in the Coupe du Trône in 1987. His emergence coincided with the election of Fouzi Lekjaa to the head of the club in 2009.
Read also: The level of Raja worries, that of Wydad does not reassure
Since then, the evolution has been regular and step by step. It took almost ten years to see the club win its first title: it was in 2018 with the Coupe du Trône, a trophy that the club will win two more times in 2021 and 2022.
The same year, Berkane reached the quarter-finals of the CAF Cup. It was on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the club founded in 1938 under the name “Association Sportive de Berkane”, a name that it kept until 1971, when, following several mergers, the club will adopt its current name.
The following year, the club reached the final of the CAF Cup, a final lost to Zamalek of Egypt, before becoming a specialist. RSB won the continental title in 2020 and 2022 and reached another final in 2024. It also won, in 2022, the Super Cup between the winner of the CAF Cup and that of the African Champions League.
In the meantime, Fouzi Lekjaa has resigned from the club presidency to devote himself to his new role as president of the FRMF and member of the executive committees within CAF and FIFA. A great first in the history of Moroccan football leaders.
There are no great clubs without great personalities to embody them. The two most prestigious periods of Real Madrid are closely linked to two of the greatest leaders in the history of football: Santiago Bernabeu and Florentino Perez.
AC Milan, the second most successful club in the European Champions League, is associated with Silvio Berlusconi, a leading politician and extremely wealthy businessman.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary manager of England's most popular club, wrote part of the legend of Manchester United. He is the most crowned coach in history.
The Argentinian Messi, considered by a large number of football fans as the greatest player of all time, allowed Barça to conquer an entire generation of supporters.
To list all the personalities who have marked world football and changed the history of certain clubs or certain nations, it would take hundreds of chronicles as football is teeming with emblematic characters.
We often compare, with a slight suspicion of bad faith, the course of the Renaissance Sportive de Berkane with those of two clubs which have unfortunately disappeared from the football scene: the Renaissance Sportive de Settat and the Union Sportive de Sidi Kacem.
The two clubs rubbed shoulders with the clouds before sinking into the depths of national competitions. They were carried by public figures before disappearing from history due to a lack of continuity and rigor in the governance of the people who were directly in charge of them. They animated the national competition without ever dominating it; AS FAR, MAS, Wydad de Casablanca, FUS and Raja shared the honors and titles.
This is not the case for this newcomer on the national and African scene: Berkane is one of the serious clubs whose governance is exemplary. He did not seek titles but to build a sporting reality. It took several years before we saw him listed as a serious candidate for the title of champion of Morocco.
Its leaders have learned the lesson that, in football, success is a matter of sustained effort and enlightened patience.
Making a club's history is not just about winning titles; even if this criterion is decisive.
Great presidents or coaches have never won trophies and yet history remembers them and their influence on the identity of the club they led or supported.
This is not the case for Berkane who, in addition to building his sporting future, collects performances and aims to be crowned twentieth champion of Morocco in post-independence history.
