Algeria national football team

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Algeria national football team stepped onto the pitch in Mexico on the 8th of June 1982 and did something nobody expected: they beat West Germany 2-1. West Germany were the defending European champions. Algeria were a young independent nation making their first World Cup appearance. That result sent the kind of signal that echoes far beyond a scoreline.

  Known as the Fennecs, Algeria represents a country whose football identity was forged long before the team officially existed. The squad was born from struggle, built through decades of inconsistency, and lifted to continental glory twice. How does a team that couldn't qualify for five straight Africa Cup of Nations tournaments eventually become continental champions? How does a side shaped by colonialism and civil war construct one of the most memorable World Cup runs Africa has ever produced? Those are the questions that follow.

• 2. Football Before Independence

  ›

  In 1956, a group of Algerian footballers met in Tunis and formed a team unlike any other. Called the Armée de Libération Nationale team and led by Ahmed Benelfoul and Habib Draoua, it was approved by the FLN in May 1957 and took the field for the first time on the 1st of June 1957 against Tunisia at the Stade Chedly Zouiten. Within a year it was dissolved and replaced by the FLN football team.

  The FLN team was assembled mainly from professional players based in France, men who left their clubs to join the Algerian independence movement. They played matches against national teams, linking African football to anti-colonial resistance through the idea of Pan-Africanism as a legitimizing tool and symbol of national identity. France's authorities quickly moved to get FIFA to refuse the team recognition, and they succeeded. Every match the FLN team played was counted as a friendly and went unrecorded in official records.

  When Algeria gained independence in 1962, football in the country had actually been established decades earlier, in the 1890s, brought by European settlers. At a press conference in Tunis, the newly formed Algerian national team explicitly refused to make political statements, describing football as a sport rather than a political influence. Algeria joined FIFA on the 1st of January 1964, a year and a half after independence.

• 3. The 1982 Shock and Its Aftermath

  ›

  Algeria's 2-1 victory over West Germany in 1982 remains one of the most famous upsets in World Cup history. West Germany were the defending European champions, and nobody had planned for this outcome. What followed that result became just as infamous.

  Algeria and Chile had both finished their group matches before the final game between West Germany and Austria. The European sides knew the math: a West German victory by one or two goals would eliminate Algeria and send both European teams through. After 10 minutes of genuine play, West Germany scored through Horst Hrubesch. Then the match changed. Both teams passed the ball aimlessly, seemingly content with a result that suited them both. The Spanish crowd screamed "Fuera, fuera" - "Out, out" - while Algerian supporters waved banknotes at the players in the stands. Even West German and Austrian fans condemned the performance.

  Algeria protested to FIFA. The appeal was dismissed and the result stood, but the tournament governing body responded to the episode by changing its qualification system. At subsequent World Cups, the final two games in each group were played simultaneously, a rule that exists specifically because of what happened in Spain in 1982. At the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Algeria could not repeat their earlier impact, failing to advance from a group that included Brazil, Spain, and Northern Ireland. Only one Algerian player scored during the entire tournament: Djamel Zidane.

• 4. Winning on Home Soil

  ›

  Algeria's 1990 Africa Cup of Nations triumph arrived on home soil in front of a final crowd of 105,302 fans at the Chérif Oudjani stadium. Getting to that final required wins over Nigeria by 5-1, Ivory Coast by 3-0, and Egypt by 2-0 in the group stage. In the final, Algeria faced Nigeria again and won their first continental title.

  The timing was bittersweet. After lifting the trophy, Algeria barely missed qualifying for the 1990 World Cup. The country was also edging toward civil war. The following years were bruising: the 1992 AFCON title holders were eliminated in the first round; in 1994 Algeria was disqualified after fielding an ineligible player; in 1998 they finished last in their group with three defeats. By 2006 they failed to qualify for either the AFCON or the World Cup.

  The years 2008 through 2009 shifted the trajectory. On the 11th of October 2008, Algeria returned to the FIFA top 20 rankings by topping their group ahead of Senegal, Gambia, and Liberia in the combined 2010 World Cup and AFCON qualifying rounds. A playoff game in Sudan in November 2009 settled their World Cup fate. Anthar Yahia scored the winner in a 1-0 victory, sending Algeria to South Africa for only the third time in their history.

• 5. Brazil, Germany, and the Road to 2014

  ›

  After the 2010 World Cup, where Algeria exited without scoring a single goal, the federation went through a string of managers in quick succession. A 2-1 loss to Guinea in a friendly and a 1-1 draw against Tanzania at home prompted veteran manager Rabah Saadane to resign. His replacement, Abdelhak Benchikha, lost 4-0 to Morocco after an initial promising 1-0 home win over them thanks to a Hassan Yebda goal. Benchikha also resigned.

  Bosnian coach Vahid Halilhodzic was then appointed and began preparing Algeria for the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign. His debut produced a 1-1 draw in Tanzania; a 2-0 win over Central African Republic followed, with Yebda and Foued Kadir scoring. Algeria qualified for the 2014 World Cup by defeating Burkina Faso in a play-off after falling short at the 2013 AFCON.

  At the 2014 tournament in Brazil, Algeria were drawn in Group H alongside Belgium, Russia, and South Korea. Sofiane Feghouli scored against Belgium in the opening match, giving Algeria a 1-0 lead before Belgium recovered for a 2-1 win. Against South Korea, Algeria won 4-2, becoming the first African team to score four goals in a single World Cup match. Islam Slimani equalized against Russia on the 26th of June to carry Algeria into the round of 16, where Germany eliminated them in extra time. It was the deepest any Algerian side had gone at a World Cup.

• 6. Belmadi and the 2019 Title

  ›

  On the 2nd of August 2018, the Algerian Football Federation appointed Djamel Belmadi as head coach. Belmadi was a former Algerian international who had mainly coached in Qatar, and his previous spell with the Qatar national team, ending in an early exit from the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, left many skeptical. Those doubts dissolved across twelve months of extraordinary football.

  At the 2019 AFCON in Egypt, Algeria beat Guinea 3-0 in the round of sixteen, then survived a penalty shootout against Ivory Coast, winning 4-3 after a 1-1 draw over 120 minutes. In the semi-final, Riyad Mahrez scored a free kick in the final moments to beat Nigeria 2-1, a result that echoed the 1990 final. In the final against Senegal, Baghdad Bounedjah scored the only goal of the match and Algeria won 1-0. It was their first continental title in 29 years and made them the second North African side after Egypt to win multiple AFCON trophies.

  At the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup held in Qatar, with Belmadi unable to coach due to scheduling, assistant Madjid Bougherra filled in. Algeria won 4-0 against Sudan, 2-0 against Lebanon, and then beat Morocco on penalties in the knockout stage before defeating hosts Qatar in a match that included a record 19 minutes of stoppage time added to the first 90. They won the Arab Cup final against Tunisia with a goal in the fifth minute of second-half extra time.

• 7. Records and the Road Ahead

  ›

  Islam Slimani holds the record as Algeria's all-time top scorer with 45 goals in 104 caps, his international career beginning in 2012. Riyad Mahrez sits second with 38 goals in 113 appearances, while the appearance record belongs to Aissa Mandi with 116 caps. Lakhdar Belloumi and Rabah Madjer each scored 28 goals in careers spanning the 1970s and 1980s, representing an earlier generation of Algerian football that laid the groundwork for what followed.

  The 2021 AFCON offered a jarring contrast to the 2019 triumph. Algeria entered with a 35-game unbeaten streak, two matches short of Italy's record, and lost it against Equatorial Guinea in their second group game. A defeat to Ivory Coast followed and they were eliminated in the group stage.

  Algeria qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup by topping their group, a campaign that produced 8 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss across 10 matches. The squad called up for the tournament and for pre-tournament friendlies against the Netherlands and Bolivia in June 2026 numbered 27 players. Aissa Mandi, still active with 116 caps, and Islam Slimani, still adding to his record 45 goals, are among those who carry the weight of the team's full history into what has become only Algeria's fifth World Cup.