From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Smouha for Lofti Boussouar was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Business is business: Anes Mokhtar goes
ES Ben Aknoun paid $130.0K and CR Belouizdad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Chouaib Keddad 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Getterson Alves 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Habib Sylla
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. CR Belouizdad will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
JS Kabylie come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and CR Belouizdad did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Houcine Benayada 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about John Okoli again, and this time the name on the line is Smouha. CR Belouizdad are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and CR Belouizdad are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. CR Belouizdad will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Kwara United for Abdennour Iheb Belhocini was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Farid El Melali and CR Belouizdad agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Farid El Melali
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Issam Yazid again, and this time the name on the line is Paradou. CR Belouizdad are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market10 Aug 2026
A conversation is coming this week. CR Belouizdad will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Enyimba for Abderrahmane Meziane was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Raouf Benguit and CR Belouizdad agree another 3 years.
Squad3 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 CR Belouizdad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at CR Belouizdad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Houcine Benayada is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.