Promoted to Ligue 1, Le Mans FC has yet to win a match in four days of the championship despite good performances, with three draws against Stade Brestois (2-2), OGC Nice (1-1) and RC Lens (2-2) last Sunday, as well as a 96th minute defeat against Stade Rennais (3-2). Sang et Or coach Patrick Videira will take advantage of the next two-week international window to perfect his team, even if he will lose his center forward Louis Mafouta and his midfielder Adil Bourabaa.
Hired during the off-season, Mafouta put on his goalscoring cape (3 goals) and the former Guingamp player will join his Central African squad next week for two qualifying matches for the next African Cup of Nations. Bourabaa has burst onto the screen in recent weeks. The 21-year-old opened his professional goal tally with a big strike against Nice before scoring with a header against Lens, being the decisive passer on the second Le Mans goal by Lucas Calodat.
A Le Mans player in the Algerian team
The story of Adil Bourabaa, a midfielder with striking technical ease, is crazy. The native of Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis) went through the En Avant Guingamp training center but tried his luck at Levante, in 2023-2024, before finishing his training at Estac. He was still playing last winter at AS Beauvais, in N2, before being recruited by Le Mans FC. He was voted man of the match in eight matches in the first part of the French D4 season. And the residents of the Stade Marie-Marvingt did not hesitate to make a place for him until he climbed into the elite.
Bourabaa was called up to the Algerian Espoirs last May, as captain, but his call-up to the A for the next international window is obvious. Brahim Hemdani is now the coach of the Greens, while the Algerian federation was not able to hire a renowned technician (Spaniards and Portuguese were in the sights, like the Uruguayan Gustavo Poyet). Amine Gouiri and his teammates face Zambia and Burundi in the CAN qualifiers.
