For some reason Algeria isn’t getting a lot of respect when it comes to this summer’s World Cup in South Africa. This is a little odd as the country has a long and storied history when it comes to football. However, many experts think the team’s French connection is something that had affected the strength of the Algerian squad over the years as many of the country’s players end up playing for France. The best example of this is former great Zinedine Zidane who starred for years with the French squad.

However, it appears the tide is slowly turning as many French-born Algerians are now more interested in playing for the African nation than over in Europe. While it would be unrealistic to say all of the Algerian players over the years would have made the French team, there are quite a few who have impressed lately.
These include Madjid Bougherra, Mourad Meghni , Hassan Yebda, and Nadir Belhadj, who have all been honoured with youth caps from France. Yebda and Meghni have also won Under-17 World Cup back in 2001. In addition, Antar Yahia, made history back in 2004 when he became the first player to suit up for a different senior national team than he played for at youth level. The French-born defender played for Algeria in the 2004 Olympics after representing France at the uner-18 level.

The Algerian football federation had urged FIFA to change the rules regarding French born players who have Algerian parents, as many of them emigrated from the African nation to France over the years, as was the case with Zidane’s parents.

Because of the political ties and French colonial control over Algeria, the European country has been using Algerian-born players for decades. However, in the mid 1950s this changed as many European-based Algerians opted to play for their home country. In fact they joined the Front de Libération National (FLN), which was a political party aimed at gaining Algerian independence from France. The most notable of these players were Mustapha Zitouni and Rachid Mekloufi were guaranteed to be on the French squad for the 1958 World Cup, but joined the FLN instead.

Many experts consider the FLN squad to be the strongest side Algeria ever fielded. The team won 65 games and drew 13, while only losing 13 out of the 91 total games they played. They could also put the ball in the back of the net as they outscored the opposition 385 to 127, and they never played a game at home.

Algeria finally gained independence in 1962 and make their World Cup debut in 1982 by stunning the world with a 2-1 win over West Germany and a 3-2 victory over Chile. The country made the tournament again in 1986, but could only manage a draw with Northern Ireland. They hit their peak in 1990 by winning the African Nations Cup at home. While things were looking up for the national team, the country deteriorated into civil war and was hit by terrorism during the 90s.

By 2000, the football program was more or less decimated and had no elite players. However, after recruiting those who were Algerian by origin, the nation was able to field a decent side. The sometimes confusing situation has led some fans to say that Zinedine Zidane should be considered as Africa’s greatest footballer because he’s Algerian. However, cynics state that he would never have reached the elite level by playing with Algeria.

But the country has shown it can produce some excellent players with Lakhdar Belloumi and Rabah Madjer being prime examples. Still, local talent isn’t being developed at the rate it should be and the best players are still learning their trade in France.

It appears Algeria is going to have to play as well as they did in 1982 if they have any chance in this year’s World Cup as they’re listed at 300/1 to win the Cup by expekt.com and 16/1 to win Group C against England, USA, and Slovenia.

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