Baby-faced Marouane Chamakh said on Tuesday that being hailed as the saviour of Morocco's African Nations Cup dream convinced him he was right to switch allegiance to the Atlas Lions from France.
The 20-year-old became a national hero on Sunday when his goal in the fourth minute of injury time gave Morocco an equaliser against Algeria in the quarter-finals and set his team on their way to a dramatic 3-1 extra-time win.
But had it not been for FIFA's recent rule change, allowing players to represent another nation as long as they had not played senior international football elsewhere, Chamakh would not have been the right man in the right place at the right time.
"I had to choose very quickly," said the Bordeaux striker who had played for the French Under-19 team but opted for Morocco only last June.
"I had a lot of advice but I took the decision myself. I had wanted to play for Morocco for a long time. I was born in France and so were my parents but my family is Moroccan."
Chamakh, who will be looking for more goals in Wednesday's semi-final here against Mali, said he thought Algeria's goal in Sfax, scored just five minutes from the end, meant the end of Morocco's hopes.
"After they scored, I thought it's finished. They had all the support behind them and I had hit the post," he recalled.
"But we all told each other to keep going and then I scored the goal that saved us."
Chamakh's whirlwind journey to the semi-finals has left him in a spin. "I turned 20 just a month ago. It's all gone so quickly. These last six months have been like a dream."