Photo: Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix

African player of the year for 2012 Yaya Toure - seen, left, against Stoppila Sunzu of Zambia at the last Afcon finals - will join Cote d'Ivoire's team at the 2013 finals in South Africa.

The coach of Morocco, Rachid Taoussi has neither retained Adel Taraabt the in form player of Queens Park Rangers, nor Marouane Chamakh, facing tough times in Asernal, in the list of 24 players for the Orange 2013 AFCON that he released on Wednesday, December 26.

Meanwhile, Taoussi will be counting on many players of the French championship such as Younes Belhanda and Abdelhamid El Katoutari of Montpellier or the solid Udinese defender Mehdi Benatia.

Morocco will play in Group A alongside the host country South Africa, Cape Verde and Angola.

The list of 24 :

Goalkeepers: Khalid Askri (Raja Casablanca), Nadir Lamyaghri (Wydad

Casablanca), Ana Zniti (Moghreb Fès)

Defenders: Younes Belakhder (FAR Rabat), Abderahim Achchakir (FAR Rabat),

Zakaria Bergdich (Lens/D2/France), Abdelhamid El Kaoutari (Montpellier/France),

Mehdi Benatia (Udinese/Italy), Issam El Adoua (Vitoria Guimaraes/Portugal), Ahmed

Kantari (Brest/France)

Midfielders: Adil Hermach (Al Hilal/Saudi Arabia), Karim El Ahmadi (Aston Villa/England), Younes Belhanda (Montpellier/France), Mehdi Namli (Moghreb Tétouan), Kamel Chafni (Brest/France), Chakhir Belghazouani (Ajaccio/France), Hamza Hafidi (Raja Casablanca)

Attackers: Oussama Assaidi (Liverpool/England), Nordin Amrabat

(Galatasaray/Turkey), Abderazzak Hamdallah (Olympique Safi), Abdelaziz Barrada

(Getafe/Spain), Youssef El Arabi (Grenade/Spain), Mounir El Hamdaoui

(Fiorentina/Italy), Youssef El Kaddioui (FAR Rabat)