Raja Casablanca

Raja Casablanca

Raja Club Athletic (RCA) (Arabic: نادي الرجاء الرياضي‎; transliterated: Nadi ar-Raja' ar-Riyady ) (Raja meaning 'hope' in Arabic) is a sports club with sections in many different disciplines in Casablanca, Morocco. Raja was founded on March 28, 1949 as part of the political struggle against French rule by nationalists who aimed to create a focus for working-class young Moroccans. The club is most well known outside Morocco for its football team.

In Morocco, Raja Casablanca is still regarded as the club of the people. For many years it had a reputation of playing entertaining football without winning many trophies. However Raja has evolved recently into a more professional outfit capable of winning trophies at home and abroad. It has become the most powerful club in Morocco.

Raja Casablanca, who has been crowned domestic champions on ten occasions, was placed in 2000 third in CAF's ranking of African clubs of the last century, finishing behind the Egyptian teams Al Ahly and Zamalek SC.

Raja Casablanca is the only Moroccan club, and the first African and Arabic team to participate in the World Club Cup. They competed in the first edition that took place in 2000 in Brazil.

Raja has the largest number of supporters in Morocco. During the 2008–2009 season, the ultras of the club wrote, in capital letters, the tifo "VOX POPULI" (meaning 'voice of the people' in Latin).