Olympique Akbou U18

Algerian League 1 U18
10 Oct 2026
Saturday
Process
10 Edition

The Olympique Akbou Gazette

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

5 matches without a win for Olympique Akbou

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Olympique Akbou are no longer polite ones.

Player ratings

A defender's goal wins it for Olympique Akbou — 7.65

1 for Dhirar Bensaadallah, marked 7.65, 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.

Squad

Real improvement from Mohamed Amine Gherbi at Olympique Akbou

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohamed Amine Gherbi is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Tempers go at Olympique Akbou

Oussama Darfalou 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.

Squad

Words at Olympique Akbou training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Dessé Sissoko 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.

Player ratings

Hamdi Labidi runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

Back issues
9 Edition

The Olympique Akbou Gazette

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

The ground has had enough

“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.

Match

No end in sight to Olympique Akbou's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Olympique Akbou has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Oussama Darfalou in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique Akbou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Aly Dessé Sissoko 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Olympique Akbou against Paradou

1‑2 to Paradou, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Hamdi Labidi

Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Ali Amriche 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.

Player ratings

Rezki Hamroune could not find anything

5.33. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.

Player ratings

Toufik Addadi never got going

5.56 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.

In brief

8 Edition

The Olympique Akbou Gazette

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Hamdi Labidi

Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Olympique Akbou

Oussama Darfalou 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.

Squad

Ahmed Alili is a better footballer than he was

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.

Squad

No hiding place for Oussama Darfalou

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oussama Darfalou, and the manager let it.

Squad

Words at Olympique Akbou training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Merouane Mehdaoui 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.

Player ratings

The chances came and went for Oussama Darfalou

6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.

In brief

7 Edition

The Olympique Akbou Gazette

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

A 2-goal lead gone for Olympique Akbou

It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. ES Ben Aknoun kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Olympique Akbou will be asked about the last half hour all week.

Player ratings

Hamdi Labidi runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Aly Dessé Sissoko 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.

Squad

Walid Zamoum in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique Akbou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Walid Bencherifa 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.

Player ratings

Joe Brito was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.09. 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.

Market

Olympique Akbou and Messie Biatoumoussoka are talking past each other

“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.

Match

Olympique Akbou and ES Ben Aknoun take a point apiece

It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

Squad

Aly Dessé Sissoko dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

In brief

6 Edition

The Olympique Akbou Gazette

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Hamdi Labidi runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Kheireddine Benamrane asks to leave Olympique Akbou

“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.

Squad

Mohammed El Hachami Chacha is a better footballer than he was

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Olympique Akbou

Oussama Darfalou 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.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Olympique Akbou

5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

Squad

Words at Olympique Akbou training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Dessé Sissoko 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.

Market

One of our own: Youcef Belaili joins the Olympique Akbou first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Youcef Belaili is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

One of our own: Yacine Mrezigue joins the Olympique Akbou first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yacine Mrezigue is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

Olympique Akbou promote Houssem Benaceur from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Houssem Benaceur has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

In brief

5 Edition

The Olympique Akbou Gazette

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Ghilas Belgacem sold, and an era ends

$200.0K from MB Rouissat for Ghilas Belgacem. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.

Market

Louanes Zidi hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympique Akbou can pretend not to have heard.

The terraces

Olympique Akbou sell a favourite for $200.0K

The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ghilas Belgacem was one of the reasons people came, and $200.0K does not replace that by itself.

Market

Olympique Akbou say no — this time

The offer from MC Alger for Louanes Zidi 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.

Squad

Oussama Darfalou in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique Akbou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Questions about Oussama Darfalou on the training pitch

The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.

In brief

4 Edition

The Olympique Akbou Gazette

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Billal Boukaroum hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympique Akbou can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Olympique Akbou

Oussama Darfalou 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.

Squad

Words at Olympique Akbou training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Dessé Sissoko 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.

Squad

Joe Brito still has not settled

A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Olympique Akbou would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.

Squad

Somebody is after Rezki Hamroune’s shirt

A new face in his position, and Rezki Hamroune suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Olympique Akbou have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.

Market

The shop window has Louanes Zidi in it

Olympique Akbou have let the market know Louanes Zidi can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.

In brief

3 Edition

The Olympique Akbou Gazette

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Olympique Akbou turn down MC El Bayadh for Aly Dessé Sissoko

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Oussama Darfalou in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique Akbou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Aly Dessé Sissoko 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.

In brief

2 Edition

The Olympique Akbou Gazette

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Olympique Akbou turn down MC El Bayadh for Hamdi Labidi

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

MC El Bayadh join the queue for Aly Dessé Sissoko

Add another name to the list: MC El Bayadh have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aly Dessé Sissoko. The answer from Olympique Akbou has not changed — yet.

Squad

Aly Dessé Sissoko stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Aly Dessé Sissoko and Olympique Akbou agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Oussama Darfalou in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique Akbou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Billal Boukaroum pulls a muscle — 17 days out

The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.

Squad

Aly Dessé Sissoko 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.

In brief

1 Edition

The Olympique Akbou Gazette

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Military Production come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Olympique Akbou did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Oussama Darfalou signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oussama Darfalou commits to Olympique Akbou for another 2 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Olympique Akbou

Oussama Darfalou 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.

Market

ES Ben Aknoun watching Nadjib Berrabah

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Olympique Akbou have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Squad

Words at Olympique Akbou training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Dessé Sissoko 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.

Market

24 months and counting on Oussama Darfalou

Still no offer on the table, and Oussama Darfalou’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.

In brief