Raja Casablanca (Morocco)

Raja Casablanca have won the MTN CAF Champions League on three previous occasions, twice since the introduction of the league phase of the competition. Raja were victors first in the old African Champions Cup in 1989 and then won the Champions League in its inaugural year in 1997. Their success came at the expense of Ghana’s Goldfields, who they beat on post-match penalties.

It took another shootout for Raja to win in 1999 in a dramatic contest against Tunisia’s Esperance Raja, who are the most popular club in their country, were also the last winners of the old Confederation of African Football Cup, which they took over Coton Sport of Cameroon in the final in 2003.

A relatively young club by north African standards, Raja were founded in1949 by Moroccan nationalists Mohamed Ben Lahcen Affani, better known as ‘Père Jégo’ who used the club to work with the country’s youth.

The club rose to the Moroccan first division in 1951 but took more than three decades to win their national championship in 1988. Success in African club competition followed swiftly thereafter, quickly establishing Raja profile on the continent.

Raja’s previously success in the MTN CAF Champions League came on the back of the form of players like Mustapha Chadli, Abdelilah Fahmi and Abdellatif Jrindou. Both Chadli and Jrindrou remain in the squad for the 2005 edition, almost a decade after their initial success. Raja appointed the Romanian coach Alexandre Moldovan for a third spell in charge of their side at the start of the 2005/2006 season. His first game in charge was their successful annexation of the delayed 2005 Throne Cup final.