A glance at the archives of the round ball is enough to capture the slow erosion of training policy in Algeria. When the Fennecs took part in their first World Cup, in 1982 in Spain, fifteen of the 22 players selected by coach Rabah Saadane played in the local championship. In 1986 in Mexico, this is still the case for half of the workforce. But twenty-four years later, during their reunion with the gratin of world football in South Africa, the Algerians – with Saadane again on the sidelines – are only three (out of 23) to play in their country . And this year, coach Djamel Belmadi has not called any local footballer for the qualifying matches for the 2022 African Cup of Nations (CAN) against Zambia (3-3) and Botswana (5-0).
In Algeria, the conclusion is unanimous: the national team may have won the last CAN, the development of football at the local level is slipping. “When professionalism was adopted in 2010, the clubs were committed to creating structures, with a place for training, with financial assistance from the State. Eleven years later, there has been no progress ”, notes Yazid Ouahib, head of the daily sports department El Watan. The fault, according to him, with a short-term vision of the current leaders of the Algerian clubs, which privilege the immediate results. Rather than investing in training, “They prefer to spend money buying players during the transfer window and that’s why the numbers change dramatically every season”, continues Yazid Ouahib.
The system has the advantage of being lucrative for many players (players, agents, managers, etc.). Today, some Algerian footballers can earn up to 20,000 euros per month. However, “They are often clearly overpriced”, considers the manager of a professional club on condition of anonymity: “The clubs do this because you need results right away. Time is not an ally in Algeria, due to pressure from supporters. “
“Gaps at the tactical level”
Recently elected president of the Algerian Football Federation (FAF), Charaf-Eddine Amara has included in his program the objective of developing the training of players and coaches. Academies have been created. “It’s good, but this work is up to the clubs to do it as a priority, in collaboration with the authority, insists Yazib Ouahib. Since when has Algeria not trained players at the level of Lakhdar Belloumi, Rabah Madjer or Salah Assad, hero of the 1982 World Cup? “
The current situation contrasts with what was going on during the period from the 1960s to the 1980s. “At the time, the clubs, attached to national companies, trained their own players. Football at school level was also very developed. This is what allowed the national team to have a local base for the 1982 World Cup, in which I participated ”, believes Ali Fergani (71 caps between 1973 and 1986), who spent his entire career in Algeria (Nasr Athletic Hussein Dey and Jeunesse sportive de Kabylie) before becoming a national coach and coach.
In the medium term, this lack of investment in talent has consequences for the good health of sport. Frenchman Alain Michel, who coached seven Algerian clubs between 2008 and 2019 – including Mouloudia Club d’Alger, Chabab Riadhi de Belouizda and Nasr Athletic Hussein Dey -, saw this. “We are not going to say that there is nothing, he concedes. The clubs have youth teams, there are championships… But this is not training in the sense that we understand it in Europe, with players who live together in a center, who train several times a day. day. This is why the Algerian players, rather gifted and technical, can have shortcomings at the tactical or physical level and do not have all the bases of professionalism. “
Fennecs born and trained in France
Only the Paradou Athletic Club (PAC), founded in 1994 by businessman Kheïreddine Zetchi, president of the FAF from 2017 to 2021, is an exception. Based in Hydra, on the heights of Algiers, the PAC, which plays in Ligue 1, has made training the basis of its project. Today, several players from this training center play in top 5 European clubs: Ramy Bensebaini in Mönchengladbach (Germany), Farid El Melali in Angers (France), Youcef Atal and Hicham Boudaoui in Nice (France).
“Apart from these examples, very few players born in Algeria and who started their career there have left for Europe. There is indeed Islam Slimani and Djamel Benlamri [tous deux à l’Olympique lyonnais] or Hilal Soudani, today in Saudi Arabia, but it is very marginal, continues Ali Fergani. Paradou has shown that it could work, provided you have the will, take the time and devote the resources to it. But in Algeria, the priority remains the national selection. “
To constitute the workforce of the Fennecs, the country relies overwhelmingly on binational players, born and trained in France. And there is no reason for the trend to reverse. Djamel Belmadi is fortunate to be able to rely on a very good generation, embodied by Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City, in England), Aïssa Mandi (Betis Seville, in Spain) or Sofiane Feghouli (Galatasaray, in Turkey). “But these players are not eternal, insists Ali Fergani. We will not always be able to count on the French training and that is why we must change things so that eventually, some locals trained in Algeria can join the Fennecs. “
