AFCON Winning Star Belaili Extolls Algerian Coach for Career Turnaround

Youcef Belaili strongly credits Djamel Belmadi under whose tenure he won the Africa Cup of Nations for Algeria, for his career turnaround.

The 27-year-old was slapped a two-year ban by Africa’s football governing body, CAF, for testing positive of cocaine in 2015, a prohibited drug in the sport.

Now at Saudi’s Al-Ahli, Belaili’s career took a nosedive as a result but he returned an improved player leading to his switch to Esperance where he won the African Champions League twice and the Tunisian title a quadruple time.

Gaffer Djamel Belmadi had been keeping tabs on the attacking midfielder and preferred him in his selection ahead of Slimani of Porto then.

The move paid off with Youcef going on to repay his coach’s faith in a heavily fielded foreign-based Algerian set up in which he was the sole player from Africa in the starting lineup.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “In the national team, I came back to my level thanks to (Coach) Belmadi and the Algerian public. I intend to continue winning titles at Ahli (Saudi).   [/perfectpullquote]

“He (Belmadi) is one of the best coaches I have worked with. He had confidence in me by giving me the opportunity to play again in the national team,” he told Saudi tabloid El-Bilad.

Belaili would end up becoming one of the revelations at AFCON in Egypt, courting interest from clubs in Europe before accepting Al Ahli’s proposal.

“I had several offers from Arab and European clubs. I received Saudi proposals from Ahly and Nasr and eventually, I chose Ahli. In reality, Ahly is a big club from the beginning, I made my choice; my father too was for Ahly,” he said.

The attacker has played five times this term, all of them from the start and earning a booking once.