A good read by Piers Edwards on the Algerian team, in the same group as USA, England, and Slovenia.
Algeria regularly provided exceptional players to France before the independence struggle began in the 1950s. That was when many of the Algerians like Monaco's Mustapha Zitouni and St Etienne's Rachid Mekloufi, considered sure prospects for the 1958 World Cup gave up playing for France to join the FLN, (Front de Liberation National) immortalized in Gilles Pontecorvo's classic "The Battle of Algiers".
More recently, a number of Algerians having risen up through the youth ranks in French clubs have returned to their country of origin with Raymond Domenech filling his squad with players from French overseas territories and West African Francophone countries.
Madjid Bougherra, Nadir Belhadj, Mourad Meghni and Hassan Yebda have strengthened Les Fennecs with Yebda and Meghni even winning the U17 World Cup title representing France.
Antar Yahia, the central defender who was Algeria's hero in the tense battle against Egypt at Khartoum by scoring the only goal became the first beneficiary of FIFA's rule change allowing a player with dual nationality and under the age of 21 years to switch his national allegiance. Yahia a former U18 French international was able to play for Algeria in the 2004 Olympics and scored a goal for a 1-0 win over Ghana.
With Samir Nasri, Karim Benzema, and Hatem Ben Arfa being left out, the nationalists would say that there will be no divided loyalties and no more embarrassing moments when Les Marseillaise is played. However, when opportunities close, others open up elsewhere. Les Fennecs are benefiting from these reverse migrations.
No comments:
Post a Comment