After the blame games, the real game. Riyad Mahrez makes his comeback for Algeria on Thursday, with, on the horizon, probably his last go at regaining the title he previously, gloriously inspired his country to. He’s back on the road to an Africa Cup of Nations, the prize that represents the zenith of his international career, the achievement that endorses Mahrez as the greatest Algerian footballer of this century.
Against Equatorial Guinea in Oran, Mahrez will embark on his sixth Afcon campaign, on a day that marks a decade since he set out on his first, as a 23-year-old fresh from a fast-track selection into Algeria’s 2014 World Cup squad.
Those first Afcon steps immediately brought the best out of a graceful young winger: he was involved in 15 goals, as assister or scorer, in his first 13 matches, qualifiers and tournament included, in the competition. By 2019, he was captaining his country to only the second Afcon title in Algeria’s history.
The vast sweep of Mahrez’s international career now rather pivots on that moment in Cairo when he lifted that trophy. Algeria’s defence of the crown would be wretched, their decline at the past two Cup of Nations tournaments – both group stage exits – dispiriting.
For much of the period since he was dropped to the bench for a chastening defeat against Mauritania that sent the Algerians home from Ivory Coast at the first hurdle at Afcon 2023, it appeared Mahrez had played his last game in a national jersey.
Coach Djamel Belmadi, with whom he had forged such a close bond, was fired in February. Mahrez then explained to Belmadi’s successor – experienced Swiss-Bosnian Vladimir Petkovic – that he needed time apart from the Algeria set-up. The response was sympathetic, but what followed were a series of fractures, an extended casting of blame.
Mahrez was omitted from June’s World Cup qualifiers, and no sooner had Petkovic told reporters that the player was still unavailable that Mahrez issued a stark correction.
“Neither the coach nor the Algerian Federation called me,” Mahrez posted, adding to his rebuke the observation that he had been pacing his recovery from a minor knee injury – sitting out two matches for his club, Al Ahli of Jeddah – in order to maximise his fitness for his country. He wanted to be involved again. “Of course I respect the coach’s decision,” he added, “but I’ve taken note of this.”
Algeria still needed him, too. While some supporters were hostile to Mahrez after the January Afcon exit, they noted how Petkovic’s first competitive fixture ended, with Mahrez absent. Algeria lost at home to Guinea, a setback – though a recoverable one – in their campaign to be at the expanded World Cup finals in 2026.
Two weeks ago, Petkovic flew to Jeddah. He had a meeting with Houssam Aouar, the midfielder who in July joined Al Ittihad from Roma and who, since switching international allegiance to the country of his heritage from his native France, has won 10 caps.
And he arranged a more complicated face-to-face with Mahrez. The outcome, at least ahead of this week’s Afcon qualifiers, on Thursday and in Monrovia against Liberia on Tuesday, was a rapprochement.
“Riyad Mahrez is a player who has done so much for Algeria, he demands respect,” said Petkovic, confirming the winger’s recall to the squad. “He’s important for the team and for me. He can still bring so much to us on the pitch but also off it, helping the younger players.”
The coach referenced the “blend of youth and experience” in his squad, and Petkovic has emphasised the need for significant transition, and greater responsibility for the likes of Aouar, 26. Belmadi had remained loyal, for many years, to a core of players from the Afcon-winning squad and that loyalty would initially be repaid in a 35-match unbeaten run for the Desert Foxes.
The momentum ceased with the abrupt failure to defend their African title at Afcon 2021, but there were no wholesale changes to personnel after that.
Petkovic has been more strident in calling time, it seems, on veterans like Islam Slimani, Algeria’s all-time record goalscorer, and playmaker Sofiane Feghouli.
Mahrez, at 33, is part of their cohort. He approaches this chapter of his international career on the back of some caustic suggestions that his peak days are behind him, that some of his club performances since leaving Manchester City as a treble winner to join the caravan of stars to the Saudi Pro League have looked sluggish.
Pundits have questioned his fitness, even his weight, although his influence on Al Ahli’s return, after promotion, to the upper storey of the Saudi hierarchy has hardly been discreet. He scored 11 league goals and assisted 14 times in 2023-24.
He has a potential rival now as the main star of his club side, should Ivan Toney, the English centre-forward, newly signed from Brentford, make a strong impression in the Pro League.
For one thing, Mahrez will likely have to drop down the list of Al Ahli’s preferred penalty takers, Toney being one of the game’s absolute experts with a spot-kick. But there’s a potentially positive partnership to be built between Mahrez as a provider and Toney as finisher.
For Algeria, the view ahead can still seem seductive. Assuming Petrovic guides the group favourites through an Afcon qualifying pool that has Togo making up the numbers alongside Liberia and Equatorial Guinea, there’s much to look forward to at the finals, which start next December.
The venue is Morocco, where Algeria would count on strong travelling support and, as in Egypt in 2019, there would be a fierce motivation to succeed on the home patch of a major rival.
There’s the World Cup. Given the nine – or ten, for a play-off winner – slots reserved for African teams in North America in the summer of 2026, Algeria can, despite a stumbling start to qualifying, target being one of the 48 participant nations.
By the start of that tournament, Mahrez will be 36. It’s old enough to know there’ll not be many big-stage opportunities left, but just about young enough to be stirred by the belief, as he was when helping Leicester City to win a Premier League, that even the most unlikely dreams can come to fruition.
