Marked for Yakoub Gassi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Aug 2027
Mohamed Zoungrana was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
The step up is real for Saliou Diop
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Yakoub Gassi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market16 Aug 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Cyril Boukhit has his answer from MC Alger; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Nobody at MC Alger will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Match16 Aug 2027
MC Alger in the hunt for Europe
Position 4, 56 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad26 Jul 2027
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad26 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market26 Jul 2027
CR Belouizdad paid $140.0K and MC Alger took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. VfL Wolfsburg have kept their man, and MC Alger go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at MC Alger
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Yakoub Gassi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Oualaa Moundhir Bouzekri is on it.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Cyril Boukhit has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout24 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” MC Alger may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market24 May 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around MC Alger they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at MC Alger
Zinedine Ferhat and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad24 May 2027
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout24 May 2027
Yakoub Gassi gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yakoub Gassi is on it.
The dugout24 May 2027
Kipré Zunon knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kipré Zunon trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Apr 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Benkhemassa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MC Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at MC Alger
Zinedine Ferhat and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A row about effort at MC Alger
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Mohamed Kerroum was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Mar 2027
MC Alger finish in position 4
56 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market29 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around MC Alger they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at MC Alger
Mohamed Zoungrana and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match27 Mar 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ishak Talal Boussouf. 2‑1 against MC El Bayadh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces29 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Stanley Amon has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Marked 8.50. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at MC Alger.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Marked 8.16. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at MC Alger.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Faouzi Bounedjah on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC Alger lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match5 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, MC Alger do not lose
11 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at MC Alger
Mohamed Zoungrana and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at MC Alger
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Saliou Bangoura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yakoub Gassi and MC Alger agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
$4.7M on the table at MC Alger
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Mohamed Awad has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at MC Alger will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Faouzi Bounedjah chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match7 Oct 2026
Cup progress for MC Alger
A 2‑1 win over MC El Bayadh, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad12 Oct 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Yakoub Gassi, 20, steals the show — 7.91
Marked 7.91 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Zinedine Ferhat was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alhassane Bangoura is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
The crowd has taken to Amine Saïd
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Shabab have kept their man, and MC Alger go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$94.0K was the most the club would pay and MC Oran were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Masr El Makasa have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yacine Mahrez commits to MC Alger for another 3 years.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The formation has left Amine Saïd behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. MC Alger will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.