Marked for Achref Abada
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Apr 2027
The season ends: position 5 for USM Alger
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 51 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market26 Apr 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Achref Abada: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” USM Alger have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at USM Alger
Zakaria Draoui 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 USM Alger
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilyes Chetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match24 Apr 2027
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Raouf Benguit had USM Alger level again within 1 minutes, and USM Khenchela never got to play with a lead at all.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Junior Ndiaye will call it something else in private.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at USM Alger, and 8 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
The match ball belongs to Junior Ndiaye, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match17 Apr 2027
ES Ben Aknoun will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. USM Alger were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A brace, and Romaric Etonde takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Romaric Etonde provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market19 Apr 2027
Achref Abada has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around USM Alger they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match17 Apr 2027
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at USM Alger
Zakaria Draoui 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about USM Alger and ES Ben Aknoun in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Junior Ndiaye was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.71. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The terraces19 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Romaric Etonde 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.
In brief
-
The dugout
The manager makes an example of Zakaria Draoui
-
Player ratings
Ghiles Guenaoui was on a different afternoon to everybody else
-
Squad
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Mar 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at USM Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market22 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at USM Alger is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to USM Alger's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at USM Alger has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at USM Alger
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilyes Chetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match20 Mar 2027
CR Belouizdad left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad22 Mar 2027
One booking too many, and Zakaria Draoui sits out. USM Alger lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match20 Feb 2027
Nobody wants to play USM Alger right now
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Farid Boulaya, 34, rolls back the years — 8.06
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market22 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Achref Abada
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Achref Abada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around USM Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match20 Feb 2027
USM Alger make home a hard place to visit
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at USM Alger
Zakaria Draoui 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at USM Alger
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilyes Chetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match20 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Farid Boulaya’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to USM Alger.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Islam Merili
“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 dugout22 Feb 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market15 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MB Rouissat waiting with a shirt. Nobody at USM Alger is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match15 Feb 2027
USM Alger are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 42 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match13 Feb 2027
Nobody wants to play USM Alger right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 7.65 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Zakaria Draoui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 Feb 2027
It finished 3‑1, and it was Romaric Etonde’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to USM Alger.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
At 21 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market8 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Romaric Etonde, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match6 Feb 2027
USM Alger make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now USM Alger have 4 straight wins of it.
Match6 Feb 2027
The run at home goes on for USM Alger
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Ilyes Chetti 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
A 2‑1 win over CS Constantine, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad8 Feb 2027
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Houssemeddine Ghacha is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market1 Feb 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at USM Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” USM Alger have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Up for the corner, and Raouf Benguit delivers — 7.99
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Raouf Benguit scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at USM Alger until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Match30 Jan 2027
USM Alger make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now USM Alger have 3 straight wins of it.
Market1 Feb 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. USM Alger have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ilyes Chetti 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Raouf Benguit. 3‑1 against MC Alger, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MB Rouissat waiting with a shirt. Nobody at USM Alger is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Romaric Etonde, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Farid Boulaya, 33, rolls back the years — 7.84
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A defender's goal wins it for USM Alger — 5.97
1 for Raouf Benguit, marked 5.97, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Zakaria Draoui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match16 Jan 2027
USM Alger make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ilyes Chetti 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jan 2027
After 13 games, USM Alger finally taste it again
The first defeat in 13 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Paradou; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. USM Alger have done the hard part with Montpellier HSC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad11 Jan 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 USM Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Hamza Boualem is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at USM Alger
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilyes Chetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
USM Alger asked and FC Metz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match9 Jan 2027
0‑2 to Paradou, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and USM Alger know it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match30 Dec 2026
A 2‑1 win over MC Oran, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match2 Jan 2027
Whatever happens, USM Alger do not lose
13 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at USM Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Marked 7.79 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Zakaria Draoui 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Achref Abada again, and this time the name on the line is MB Rouissat. USM Alger are listening politely and promising nothing.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 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 USM Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ilyes Chetti 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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Islam Merili’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and USM Alger needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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 Rayane Abdelmadjid Mahrouz is on it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Achref Abada has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at USM Alger that is a harder question to answer.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes Hamza Boualem a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at USM Alger. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” USM Alger may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at USM Alger
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Romaric Etonde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmed Khaldi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.63, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match31 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout2 Nov 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.” Bilal Haddad chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Hocine Dehiri has moved up it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Islam Merili asks for a word with the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at USM Alger
Zakaria Draoui 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ilyes Chetti 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
MC Alger left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bilal Haddad after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Achref Abada gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Market5 Oct 2026
USM Alger bring in an old head
Antoine Hoppenot is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 16 in, 4 out at USM Alger
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $111.2K — a club that wants Oualaa Moundhir Bouzekri enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The offer went to MC Alger this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ilyes Chetti 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kavala have kept their man, and USM Alger go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
USM Alger say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ilyes Chetti moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at USM Alger than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Squad7 Sep 2026
USM Alger will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Paradou in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.