The Moroccan goalie played a crucial role in helping his nation advance to the World Cup semifinals.
This World Cup semifinal appearance by the Moroccan national team is a first for both African and Arab nations.
The consensus among analysts is that the Atlas Lions' outstanding defence has allowed them to proceed this far. In the competition, the football squad has only given up one goal, an own goal against Canada.
Any gap between the lines in midfield and defence has been condensed by a tight 4-1-4-1 defensive bloc.
Their opponents will find Yassine Bounou of Morocco's goalkeeping smiling through it all to be the only thing more aggravating than their impenetrable defence.
Consider the dramatic shootout versus Spain in the round of 16 as an example. The 31-year-old was seen grinning toothily at Sergio Busquets in midair before cleanly deflecting Spain's third penalty kick.
Throughout the knockout stages, he shot the Spanish and Portuguese players around a dozen sardonic smiles.
Former Moroccan national team goalkeeping coach Christophe Revel told Radio France International that if Bounou is not grinning, there is a problem.
In the majority of his sit-down interviews, the goalie reclines cross-legged, mulls over his responses, and then responds pensively.
It would not be difficult to picture him having a career in academics if he weren't a football player.
In Canada's Montreal, Bounou was born. When he was three years old, the family relocated back to Casablanca, Morocco. He was raised there in a cosy, middle-class environment and later went to one of Morocco's top secondary French schools.
Bounou, however, does not have an inflated sense of self-importance. Instead, his calm demeanour resulted from early job exposure to high-pressure settings.
Bounou joined Wydad Athletic Club when he was eight years old and advanced fast through the ranks of Morocco's most prosperous football team. Nothing could have prepared him, however, for his eventual professional debut, which occurred in the second leg of the 2011 African Champions League final against Espérance Sportive de Tunis, a team dominated by Tunisian football.
"It was challenging to play in my first game. Prior to the World Cup, he told Moroccan TV station M24TV, "I felt like if the game went poorly, my career might have gone one way, and if I played well, it would have gone the other way.
He made a number of saves, but Harrison Afful of Ghana, a fullback, outplayed him with a world-class performance. No matter the outcome.
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