The USM Khenchela Herald
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Ismail El Haddad yet — 8.39
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.39 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Islam Bakir pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Samuel Oppong is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at USM Khenchela
Ismail El Haddad 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Abdelhamid Dris has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ismail El Haddad the difference as USM Khenchela beat ES Ben Aknoun
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ismail El Haddad. 1‑0 against ES Ben Aknoun, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Islam Bakir
- Player ratings Miguel Sansores never got going
- Player ratings Abdelhamid Dris shuts the door
- The terraces The press cannot get enough of Ismail El Haddad