Mustapha zitouni biography samples
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Football has long proven to be more than just a game. National teams have unified entire populations. Take Brazil, for instance. In the early 20th century, it was a divided country with various takes on national identity. It wasn’t until they came together and won the 1958 World Cup that the nation truly started to move towards unification. It was in part thanks to football; that one, giant unifier that everyone in Brazil – rich, poor, black, white – could unite behind and identify as truly Brazilian. Now it’s seamlessly woven into their culture. You can’t think about Brazil without thinking of their legacy in football.
Algeria can relate to that, just on a different scale. While national teams were competing post-war, Algeria weren’t. That’s because there was no Algeria yet. Since the 1830s, the country had been ruled by France, becoming an important colony throughout its 130-year-long occupation that, as early as the 1850s, the majority of the population in ancient cities
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How Algeria's Freedom Fighters Founded a Football Team and Created a Nation
In 1958, two months before the start of the World Cup to be held in Sweden, the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), an Algerian independence movement, created the Équipe FLN, a de facto national team for Algeria, which was then still under French rule and thus barred from having a national team. Its players consisted largely of French-born Algerians, some of whom renounced their chance to play in a World Cup. But for them, playing for a free Algeria was more important.
Since then, football has been intrinsically linked with national identity and independence from colonial power in Algeria. This year, Algeria is one of three African teams to compete in the Men’s Football tournament at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Two years ago, when the Algerian National Football team went to Brazil to participate in its fourth World Cup, it featured eight players (out of a roster of 23) who had been born in
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ST: Rachid Mekhloufi (France/Algeria)
Rachid Mekhloufi is the all-time leading scorer for Saint-Etienne in France, where he played from 1954 to 1958. He won 4 Ligue 1 titles with them in the 1960's. Liked many French-Algerian of his generation, he was capped by France. He played 4 times for France between 1956 and 1957. He later played for FLN Algeria national team and then, Algeria after it gained independence. He was the co-manager of the Algeria national football team in the 1982 World Cup.
Mohamed Benhamou, Cédric Si Mohamed, Carl Medjani, Antar Yahia, Nadir Belhadj, Abdelkader Ben Bouali, Yuri Berchiche, Carl Medjani, Sofiane Feghouli, Medhi Lacen, Mahi Khennane, Ahmed Mihoubi, Ali Benouna, Adlene Guedioura, Jean-François Larios, Marcel Salva, Yazid Mansouri, Nabil Fekir, Chérif Oudjani, Mario Zatelli, Said Brahimi, Houssem Aouar, Omar Sahnoun, Mourad Meg