After the retirement of Mahrez, Ben Sabaini and Mandy
“Al-Shorouk” sources revealed the intention of the national team duo, Baghdad Bounedjah and Youssef Belaili, to end their international careers, and then retire from playing for the first team in the next stage due to their advanced age, as the first is 35 years old and the second is 34 years old, in addition to the fact that the players want to leave their position to the rising generation following the example of captain Riyad Mahrez, as well as Ramy Bensebaini and Issa Mandi, who decided to put an end to their careers with the national team after participating. The last in the 2026 World Cup finals, noting that the national squad will be starting at the end of next September on a date with the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, which will be hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in the period between June 19 and July 17 of next year 2027, facing the national teams of Zambia and Burundi.
The same sources said that Belaili and Bounedjah, who have a close relationship even outside the green rectangle, will announce their decision to retire at the end of next August, that is, before the date of the next international hiatus, which will mark the appointment of a new coach for the first team to succeed the Swiss Vladimir Petkovic, which means that the latter’s successor will be forced to find a complete squad in a record time to compete in the upcoming qualifiers, in line with the changes that will occur to the team from A technical staff and players after some made the decision to retire internationally.
The same sources also added that Baghdad Bounedjah, in particular, had gone through a difficult stage in the recent period after Petkovic made the decision not to include his name in the list participating in the World Cup finals, which negatively affected the morale of the player who made the decision to officially retire in his heart, especially since Petkovic had ignored Bounedjah a lot since the end of the last “Alkan” that took place in Morocco, in addition to making the decision to exclude him for disciplinary reasons. According to his justifications, his name was included in the expanded list that included 55 players, noting that Bounedjah is considered among the best strikers who have played for the national team since independence, as he recorded distinguished statistics with “Al-Khader” as well as the Qatari club Al-Shamal, for which he plays, and before that with Al-Sadd.
As for Blayli, who was aware in advance that he would not accompany the team to the World Cup due to the punishment imposed on him and the injury that ended his hopes of a quick return to the national team, as well as his Tunisian club, Esperance, thereby ending the childhood dream of “Son of Bahia” Oran, despite his great weight in the team and his contribution to achieving positive results on many occasions, especially since he was among the “architects” of the continental coronation in “Cannes.” 2019 in Egypt, before his participation with the national team became irregular since Petkovic was appointed at the head of the team’s technical crossbar at the end of February 2024, noting that Belaili has 58 matches on his record with the national team in various competitions, contributing to 37 goals between passes and scoring, to miss “Cannes” 2025 as well as the last Arab Cup that took place in Qatar.
