Riyad Mahrez, the star and captain of Algeria, broke his silence in recent hours to offer his apologies while addressing some disputes.
While Algerian players had remained silent after their early elimination in the 2023 AFCON, Riyad Mahrez chose to speak out upon their return to Algeria last night. In statements relayed by the Gazette du Fennec, Mahrez took full responsibility for the failure, admitting his fault.
Mahrez identifies those responsible
“We are responsible, starting with me, and I take it all upon myself. We haven’t lived up to expectations these past 2-3 years, and we’re paying the price. We are disappointed and very sad for the Algerian supporters and our families, because we play for the people. We are deeply affected and hope for a fresh start with a new coach. I don’t know what my goal will be; my head is spinning. It’s not easy to recover from such a failure,” said the Algerian star.
Mahrez, unable to explain the reasons for the debacle, added: “We haven’t been good enough. We’ve won so much for a long time, but in football, you win and you lose, and you lose more than you win. The problem? I don’t know. We had good players and a great coach. I think the team, with 3-4 players more, is the best in Algeria.”
Finally, Mahrez took the opportunity to settle some scores with journalists, accusing them of exerting negative pressure on the team. “Many journalists are against us; they don’t exert positive pressure, but well, that’s not an excuse. But I find it unfortunate that there is so much media pressure around us. It’s not like we’ve won 10 African Cups and we’re always the favorites,” Mahrez concluded.
Mahrez and other key players retiring?
Following Algeria’s surprising elimination from the 2023 AFCON, several players, including Riyad Mahrez, could announce their international retirement. According to El Marma, several Algerian internationals are considering retiring after the Fennecs’ fiasco at the AFCON. Among the mentioned players are Riyad Mahrez, Islam Slimani, Aïssa Mandi, Raïs M’Bolhi, Sofiane Feghouli, Nabil Bentaleb, Baghdad Bounedjah, and Youcef Belaïli.
This is likely the end of an era for the Algerian team. Daniel Riolo believes that many stars are simply finished. He attributes the responsibility for this failure to the players’ mediocrity, a coach at the end of his tether, and describes the situation as total decay for the squad. Riolo claims that many team players are now in decline, pointing out Ounas as a substitute in Ligue 1 and Belaili as an overrated player, according to his remarks on the show “L’After.”
In a press conference, Algerian coach Djamel Belmadi expressed his powerlessness in the face of the situation. He acknowledged the lack of goals and mentioned mysterious moments in football, emphasizing that they failed to score despite several opportunities.
“Every time we concede a semblance of a chance, it ends up in the back of the net. We can go back to all the goals conceded. There are things I can’t explain. Then we can’t score, even though we have plenty of opportunities. There’s a part of football’s mystery… If we weren’t creating clear chances, if we were being dominated by other teams, I’d say that things aren’t going well. That’s not the case. There’s a part I can’t explain, but it’s a reality,” he said.
Leave a Reply