Football Nigérien
ALG: Mahrez-Bennacer, the beginnings of a return to the forefront
In the starting blocks, in view of the new season, many Greens are showing signs of renewal.
Another assurance for Petkovic's national team, which will really need it when the time comes to start the CAN 2025 qualifiers. We left him with the honorary title of best passer in the Roshn Saudi League, but quite far from the selection of which he is nevertheless a legend. Appearing happy and peaceful in the photos of his repeated celebrations of his marriage to Taylor Swift, Riyad Mahrez has since resumed training with Al-Ahli and put on his overalls again for the needs of the traditional pre-competition preparation.
In Austria with his club, he always appears all smiles in front of the camera, especially when it comes to ball exercises and gives the impression of having buried the hatchet with his coach, Mathias Jaissle. Gone, apparently, are all the procrastination that accompanied his first season as a pro outside England. Gone, too, are the problems of adaptation and the torment between justifying emoluments proportional to his status as a global icon in a new environment.
Calm and free from worries
He must continue to play his role as captain of a fallen selection. Now fulfilled, happy in his marriage and ready to start his second season in the Al-Ahli jersey, that of confirmation, Riyad Mahrez will even find his place in the Greens' locker room at the start of the school year, which should offer him a new balance capable of finding his true level, the same one that made him not so long ago one of the best players in the world in his position and one of the stars of the Premier League, crowned by his title of MVP in 2016.
All the more so since the trend on Vladimir Petkovic's side is also towards appeasement and recovery of the best Algerian player of the last thirty years. In a jovial mood, his teammate in the selection and companion of conquest in 2019 in Cairo, Ismaïl Bennacer, has also been spreading, in recent days, very positive vibes.
The EN (still) needs it badly
We have also seen him posting photos of the joy of living with a few teammates in Times Square, in the heart of the Big Apple, or having fun like a kid riding a suitcase on wheels, all in the middle of AC Milan's summer tour in the United States.
Retained by the new man of the Rossoneri first team, Paulo Fonseca, for this American escapade, during which the former Lille coach has scheduled three friendly matches (against Manchester City, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona), the former gunner would have thus received guarantees to live a sixth season at Milan while transfer rumors had announced his return to the Premier League via Arsenal. Under contract with the prestigious Lombard club until June 30, 2027, “Isma” does not hide, moreover, his happiness to be able to begin a complete preparation in view of a season.
Starter against City in friendly
With a very respectable market value of around 30 million euros, according to the German reference site (Transfermarkt), he wants this season to be the one of his return to the forefront after a very complicated 2023-2024 season. Freed from his health concerns which had earned him a knee operation and an unavailability of several months which had weighed down his season, Bennacer is, in fact, back on the attack.
A small glimpse of this was given on the night of Saturday to Monday during the test match against the reigning English champions. Started by Fonseca as a left midfielder in an asymmetrical 4-2-3-1, with Florenzi at his side and just behind Saelemaekers and Loftus-Cheek, the Greens' vice-captain greatly contributed to the anecdotal victory of the Milanese (3-2) over Pep Guardiola's largely revamped eleven before being taken off shortly after the hour mark, in the 64th minute to be precise, to be replaced by Liberali.
RACHID BELARBI