The situation is ludicrous in Algeria. While the selectors for the 2026 World Cup give their list of 26 players in turn, Vladimir Petkovic will wait until the last minute to formalize his group. We will have to wait until Sunday to know the identity of the lucky winners, on the eve of the deadline set by Fifa (June 1). However, the training camp opened on Monday and many players have already joined the National Technical Center in Sidi Moussa, south of Algiers.
A captain of the Greens will not fly to the United States and the followers of the selection are in shock. This is Ismaël Bennacer. Algerian international since 2016, the left-handed defensive midfielder quickly established himself as the hub of his team and was voted best player of the 2019 African Cup of Nations won by Riyad Mahrez and his teammates!
Victim of a muscle injury in the round of 16 of the last CAN against the DRC on January 6, the player who played for OM then relapsed and only returned in April with Dinamo Zagreb, where he was on loan from AC Milan. He was crowned Croatian champion and played in his team’s last five matches, including the last two as a starter. It was obviously not enough for Petkovic.
The entire Algeria team gathered on Wednesday
“I’m not going to lie, I don’t understand. When you feel good physically, you work, you come back to a good level and you have had this dream of the World Cup with your country for years, it is necessarily difficult to accept”Bennacer reacted to the Gazette du Fennec. The player trained at AC Arles-Avignon (he is Arlesian by birth) is disappointed because he assures that he is physically operational.
Algeria will know more or less about the group for the World Cup since all the selected World Cup players will be present on Wednesday at the Greens’ training. Riyad Mahrez and Houssem Aouar, still on vacation, are expected this Wednesday. If Luca Zidane, Nabil Bentaleb or Amine Gouiri started preparation, Illan Kebbal and Baghdad Bounedjah, another hero of CAN 2019, were not called up. Five goalkeepers are present, so the two reserves will be designated this weekend.
