Madjid Bougherra ( ar, مجيد بوقرة, lit=, links=, translit=; born 7 October 1982) is an Algerian football manager and former

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who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He is the manager of the Algeria A' national team. Bougherra began his professional career with French club

Gueugnon Gueugnon () is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. Population Economy The primary industry in the town is a stainless-steel factory run by Aperam. A huge part of Gueugnon ...

before having spells with Crewe Alexandra,

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

in England. He moved to Rangers in 2008 for a fee of £2.5 million and made 113 appearances; he was a key part of the team that won the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...

championship in the 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons. He signed for

Lekhwiya Al-Duhail Sports Club ( ar, نادي الدحيل الرياضي), formerly Lekhwiya SC, is a Qatari sports club, best known for its football team, which plays in the Qatar Stars League. The club is based in the Duhail district in the city ...

of Qatar in 2011 for £1.7 million, moving to Al-Fujairah three years later. Bougherra ended his club career following a short spell at Football League Greece club Aris. Born in France, Bougherra won 70 international

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and scored four goals for the Algeria national team from 2004 to 2015. He participated in the

2010 Africa Cup of Nations The 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 27th Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was held in Angola, where it began on 10 January ...

, where Algeria finished fourth, and the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

. He served as the team's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from ...

Club career

Early life and career

Bougherra was born and raised in

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlie ...

Côte-d'Or Côte-d'Or (; literally, "Golden Slope") is a département in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of Northeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 534,124. He began his career at AS Quetigny in 1999.

Gueugnon

Bougherra joined

in July 2002. Whilst with the

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue ...

club, Bougherra made 49 league appearances and scored one goal. He also made a single appearance in the

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a knockout cup competition in French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was established in 1993 and, unlike the Coupe de France ...

Crewe Alexandra

Bougherra joined English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

club Crewe Alexandra on loan at the end of January 2006. He managed to get into the Crewe record books as his agent,

Charles Collymore Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

recommended the Algerian defender to the South Cheshire club and was given £5,000 by the club, making him the first agent to receive a fee from Crewe. After a number of impressive performances, including a goal in the 4–1 win over

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...

, many of the club's supporters urged then manager Dario Gradi to sign Bougherra on a permanent basis. However, in April 2006, he confirmed he would leave Crewe at the end of his loan spell after failing to help the club avoid relegation to League One.

Sheffield Wednesday

Bougherra's performances at Crewe had attracted interest from a number of clubs in England, including some from the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

. He signed for another Championship club,

, in May 2006. The fee was undisclosed, but according to manager

Paul Sturrock Paul Whitehead Sturrock (born 10 October 1956) is a Scottish former football coach and former player. As a player, Sturrock spent his entire senior career with Dundee United, making more than five hundred appearances between 1974 and 1989. He w ...

it was not as much as the reported £300,000. Bougherra made a big impact at Hillsborough after making his debut on 5 August against

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

, winning the Player of the Month award in only his second month at the club and captaining the team for the first time against

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

at home in October. He also scored twice for Wednesday, against

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn professio ...

and

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

in the first half of the 2006–07 season.

Charlton Athletic

During the January 2007

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer wi ...

, Bougherra was linked with several Premier League clubs. Sheffield Wednesday rejected a £1.3 million offer from

, whilst

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...

, Everton and

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

were also rumoured to be interested. Eventually the Owls accepted an increased offer of £2.5 million from Charlton for Bougherra, who completed his move to The Valley on 28 January 2007. Bougherra was linked with a transfer to West Brom in the summer of 2008 after a transfer fee of £2.5 million was accepted by Charlton. However, Bougherra chose not to join Albion, saying that the absence of West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace during negotiations was a major factor; Peace commented that his presence was not required for the transfer to go through.

Rangers

Bougherra joined Rangers, signing a four-year contract for £2.5 million on 31 July 2008. He made his debut on 9 August in a

match against

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had ...

, and scored his first goal on 28 September 2008 in a 3–0 win against Hibernian. After Rangers lost

Carlos Cuéllar Carlos Javier Cuéllar Jiménez (; born 23 August 1981) is a Spanish former professional footballer. Mainly a central defender, he could also operate as a right-back. Club career Early career Born in Madrid, Cuéllar represented Internacional ...

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...

, Bougherra formed a consistent partnership alongside David Weir. Bougherra was sent off in a 2–1 win over

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

in May 2009 after a challenge with

Jamie Langfield James Robert Langfield (born 22 December 1979) is a Scottish football player and coach, who is currently the goalkeeping coach at St Mirren. Langfield, who played as a goalkeeper, started his career with Dundee. He then played for Partick Thistl ...

. The red card was reduced to a yellow upon appeal after the referee changed his decision after reviewing the incident. Bougherra was available for the title decider against Dundee United the following weekend which Rangers won 3–0, winning them the title. Bougherra ended his first season in Scottish football by winning the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB S ...

in the group stage of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League, earning Rangers a point. The goal came on Bougherra's European debut for the club. After playing for Algeria against

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier Bougherra returned to Scotland two days late and was subsequently dropped for a league match away to St Johnstone on 17 October. He was late returning from international duty again in November after being caught up in Algeria's World Cup qualification celebrations. On 3 May 2010, Bougherra was awarded the PFA Scotland goal of the season for his effort in the 7–1 win over Dundee United in December 2009. Bougherra missed much of the second half of the 2009–10 season through injury, but picked up his second SPL winners medal after Rangers clinched back-to-back league titles in 2010. On 14 September 2010, Bougherra was named as the man of the match in the opening group game of the

2010–11 UEFA Champions League The 2010–11 UEFA Champions League was the 56th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 19th under the UEFA Champions League format. The final was held at Wembley Stadium in London on 28 May 2011, wher ...

against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wembl ...

, with the game ending 0–0. On 26 January 2011, he scored with a volley in a 2–0 win over Hibernian. In March 2011, Bougherra announced that he intended to leave Rangers at the end of the 2010–11 season after turning down a new contract. Bougherra was fined £2500 by the SFA for manhandling referee Callum Murray during an Old Firm match in 2011. On 3 August in a

2011–12 UEFA Champions League The 2011–12 UEFA Champions League was the 57th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 20th season in its current Champions League format. As part of a trial that started in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa L ...

qualifier against

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Associatio ...

, Bougherra was shown a straight red card for elbowing an opponent, which proved to be his last game for the club.

Lekhwiya

In August 2011, Bougherra moved to Qatari club

for £1.7 million. Bougherra made his league debut on 16 September in a match against

Al-Wakrah Al Wakrah ( ar, الوكرة, al-Wakra) is the capital city of the Al Wakrah Municipality in Qatar. Al Wakrah's eastern edge is the shores of the Persian Gulf and Qatar's capital Doha is situated to the city's immediate north. Governed by Sheikh ...

where he scored the only goal of the match, thus scoring the first goal of the 2011–12 season. In his first season with the club, he helped Lekhwiya win the

2011–12 Qatar Stars League The 2011-12 Qatari League, also known as Qatari Stars League was the 39th edition of top-level football championship in Qatar. The season started on 1 September 2011 and finished on 13 April 2012. Lekhwiya won the league title. Teams Al-Saili ...

. Bougherra left Lekhwiya in May 2014.

Aris, retirement

On 9 September 2016, Bougherra signed for Football League Greece club Aris. Three months later, after not featuring for Aris and only appearing on the bench once, Bougherra announced his retirement from football.

International career

Despite being born in France, Bougherra opted to play for Algeria, who he was eligible to represent through a grandparent. He made his debut at under-23 level on 2 January 2004, in a 2004 Summer Olympics qualifier against

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and Tog ...

. He made two more appearances at under-23 level in qualifiers against Ghana and

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

. Bougherra made his full debut for the Algeria national team in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier on 20 June 2004 against

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

. On 2 July 2007, he scored his first goal in a 2–2 draw against

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

. His second goal came on 20 June 2009, a header from a free kick in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against

, which ended in a 2–0 win, putting them at the top of their group.

Coaching and managerial career

In 2017, Bougherra joined the technical coaching staff of

Georges Leekens Georges Leekens (born 18 May 1949) is a Belgian football manager and former player. During his managerial career, he was in charge of four national teams: the Belgian, Tunisian, Algerian and Hungarian national football teams. He also manage ...

at the national team of Algeria. In the summer 2017, he then became manager of

Al-Duhail SC Al-Duhail Sports Club ( ar, نادي الدحيل الرياضي), formerly Lekhwiya SC, is a Qatari sports club, best known for its football team, which plays in the Qatar Stars League. The club is based in the Duhail district in the city ...

's reserve team / U23 team. On 16 June 2019, he was appointed manager of Emirati club Fujairah FC. On 9 February 2020, he departed from his Fujairah job by a mutual consent after dropping into the relegation zone. On 22 June 2020, the

Algerian Football Federation The Algerian Football Federation (AFF); ( ar, الاتحادية الجزائرية لكرة القدم) is the governing body of football in Algeria. It was formed in 1962 and was based in the capital Algiers. It has jurisdiction on the Algerian ...

announced the appointment of Bougherra to the position of coach of Algeria A' national team.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Algeria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bougherra goal.''

Managerial statistics

Honours

As a player

Rangers *

: 2008–09, 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2008–09 *

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existe ...

: 2009–10,

Lekhwiya *

Qatar Stars League The Qatar Stars League ( ar, دوري نجوم قطر), or the QSL, also called QNB Stars League for sponsorship reasons, is the top level football league in Qatar football league system. Contested by 12 teams, it operates on a system of promoti ...

: 2011–12, 2013–14 *

Qatar Crown Prince Cup The Qatar Cup is a tournament in men's football. It is played by the top 4 teams of the Qatar Stars League The Qatar Stars League ( ar, دوري نجوم قطر), or the QSL, also called QNB Stars League for sponsorship reasons, is the top l ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

Individual * PFA Scotland Team of the Year: 2008–09, 2010–11 * Rangers Player of the Year: 2009 *

PFA Scotland The Professional Footballers' Association Scotland (PFA Scotland) is the association for professional footballers in Scotland. It was known as the Scottish Professional Footballers' Association (SPFA), but that organisation was dissolved and repla ...

Goal of the Season: 2010 * Algerian Ballon d'or: 2009, 2010 * DZFoot d'Or: 2009, 2010 * El Heddaf Arab Footballer of the Year: 2009 * CAF Team of the Year: 2010 *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internat ...

Team of the Tournament:

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

* Algeria Press Service: Best Algerian athletes of the year: 2010

As a manager

Algeria *

FIFA Arab Cup The FIFA Arab Cup ( ar, كأس العرب, translit=Kaʾs al-ʿArab), or simply Arab Cup, is an international association football competition which has been organized by FIFA since 2021, and is contested by the senior men's national teams o ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

References

External links