Rabah Mustapha Madjer (; born 15 December 1958) is an Algerian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a striker. He reached stardom as a

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

player during the 1980s, being widely regarded as one of the best Algerian football players of all time.African legends: Rabah Madjer

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

, 1 September 2003 In his six-year spell with that club, he won nine major titles, including three

national championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

and the 1987 European Cup. One of the most prolific Algeria internationals in number of games and goals, Madjer played in two

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

with his national team, helping it to its first ever participation in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

. Having taken up coaching immediately after retiring, he managed several clubs, and also had several spells with the Algeria national team.

Club career

Born in the

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

district of

Hussein Dey Hussein Dey (real name Hüseyin bin Hüseyin; 1765–1838; ) was the last Dey of the Deylik of Algiers. Early life He was born either in İzmir or Urla in the Ottoman Empire. He went to Istanbul and joined the Canoneers (Topçular in Turkis ...

of Kabyle origin (

Tigzirt Tigzirt, the classical Iomnium, is a small town on the coast of northeast Algeria in Tizi Ouzou Province. It has a sleepy demeanor and attracts many tourists especially in summer from all over the country. Name Tigzirt's name derives from the ...

), Madjer started his European career in 1983, moving to

Racing Club de France football Colombes 92 Racing Club de France Football, commonly known as Racing Club de France (), is a French football club based in the Paris suburb of Colombes. The club was founded in 1882 as a multi-discipline sports club, and is one of the oldest clubs in Fr ...

from local

NA Hussein Dey Nasr Athlétique de Hussein Dey (), known as NA Hussein Dey or NAHD for short, is an Algerian professional football club based in Hussein Dey, Algiers. The club was founded in 1947 and its colours are red and yellow. Their home stadium, 20 Aug ...

. He stayed there for one and a half seasons, finishing 1984–85 with another French side,

Tours FC Tours Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tours (), was a football club based in Tours, France. Formed in 1919, the club adopted the name Tours FC in 1951 after several other name changes. The club was dissolved on 26 February 2025 d ...

. Madjer arrived at

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

in 1985–86 and, the following campaign, entered the club's history books in the final of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

, scoring the 1–1 equalizer in a memorable final, which eventually ended 2–1 to the Portuguese, and also setting up the winner of

Juary Juary Jorge dos Santos Filho (; born 16 June 1959), known simply as Juary, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a striker, and currently a manager. He is the current head coach of Campeonato Roraimense club Náutico. C ...

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...

is believed to have said of this goal: "It would have been the greatest goal I have ever seen, if he had not looked back at it." He also netted in the club's

Intercontinental Cup Intercontinental Cup may refer to: Football * FIFA Intercontinental Cup, an association football competition involving the club champions of the six confederations of FIFA * Intercontinental Cup (1960–2004), an association football competition o ...

conquest the same year.Intercontinental Club Cup 1987
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

After that stellar 1987, Madjer won the Ballon d'or Africain, but was not allowed to compete for the European Golden Ball as he was not born in the region. In the first part of 1987–88 he scored ten times from only 11 appearances. In the summer 1988 he moved to

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

but the medical exams detected a serious thigh muscle injury that the player had in the past and the contract was never officially signed (despite the initial announcement and the official photos already taken). After being close to transferring to Bayern Munich, Madjer signed for

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

in January 1988, returning to his previous team after only a few months for a further three seasons.

Johan Cruyff Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016), internationally known as Johan Cruyff (), was a Dutch professional Association football, football player and Manager (association football), manager. Regarded as one of the greatest ...

had also attempted to sign Madjer for

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or commonly Ajax, is a Dutch professional Association football, football Football team, club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. ...

at the time the clubs met in the

1987 European Super Cup The 1987 European Super Cup was played between Porto and Ajax, with Porto winning 2–0. Match details First leg Second leg See also * 1986–87 European Cup *1986–87 European Cup Winners' Cup * AFC Ajax in international football ...

. Cruyff was unhappy with his own club's board, believing that they leaked details of the transfer which caused Porto to pull out of the deal. Madjer retired from the game in 1992 at the age of nearly 34, after a brief stint with

Qatar SC Qatar Sports Club () is a sports club based in Doha, Qatar. It is best known for its football team which competes in the Qatar Stars League. The club was founded in 1961 with the merger of two Qatari football clubs, Al-Oruba and Al-Nasour. They ...

International career

Madjer played for the Algeria national team for 19 years, and was present at the

and

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...

finals. He retired as the nation's top goalscorer at 28, in 87

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

, having also won the

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

as the hosts incidentally beat

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

twice, in the opening match 5–1 and the final 1–0. Madjer's most famous goal came in Algeria's 2–1 win over

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in the 1982 World Cup, when he opened the scoring in the 53rd minute.

Post-playing career

In 1993, Madjer began coaching the Algeria national team but after failing to qualify for two 1994 major competitions, the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

and the CAN, he resigned, returning to Porto as a youth coordinator. He subsequently managed Qatari clubs

Al Sadd SC Al Sadd Sports Club () is a Qatari sports club based in the Al Sadd (Qatar), Al Sadd district of the capital city Doha. It is best known for its association football team, which competes in the top level of Qatari football, the Qatar Stars Leagu ...

(1997–1998) and

Al-Wakrah Sport Club Al-Wakrah Sport Club () is a Qatari multi sports club, multi-sports club based in the city of Al Wakrah. Their professional association football, football team competes in the Qatar Stars League. They play their home games at the Al Janoub ...

(1998–1999). After a quick spell with the Algeria national team in 1999, Madjer returned two years later, only to resign with aggravation in the 2002 summer. In 2005 he was appointed coach of Qatari club

Al Rayyan SC Al-Rayyan Sports Club () is a Qatari multi-sports club fielding teams in a number of sports such as football, futsal, basketball, volleyball, handball, athletics, table tennis, and swimming. It is based at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Umm ...

. He controversially returned to the post of Algeria national team coach in October 2017, his first managerial work for over a decade, after

Lucas Alcaraz Luis Lucas Alcaraz González (born 21 June 1966) is a Spanish football manager. In a managerial career of over two decades, he competed in ten La Liga seasons at the helm of Recreativo (with whom he reached the 2003 Copa del Rey final), Racin ...

failed to take the team to the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

. The following June he was dismissed, having won twice in seven games of which six were friendlies. After his coaching spells, Madjer started a career as a professional analyst in Qatar, for

Al-Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pr ...

Sports (

beIN Sports beIN Sports ( ) is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its ...

now). In 2011 he became a

UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. UNESCO goodwill ambas ...

Personal life

Madjer's son

Lotfi Lutfi (also spelled Lotfi or Luthfi, from ), is a male given name and surname meaning "kind" or "gracious". It may refer to: Given name Lotfi * Lotfi A. Zadeh (1921–2017), Azerbaijani electrical engineer * Lotfi Akalay (1943-2019), Moroccan wr ...

is also a footballer and represented

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

at youth level.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Hussein Dey *

Algerian Cup The Algerian Cup () also known the Republic Cup (), is a football competition in Algeria, pitting regional teams against each other. It was established in October 1962, three months after independence, and has been played yearly since then apart ...

: 1978–79 *

African Cup Winners' Cup The African Cup Winners' Cup was a football competition that started in 1975 and merged with the CAF Cup in 2004 to form the CAF Confederation Cup. It was a competition between the winning clubs of domestic cups in CAF-affiliated nations and w ...

: Runner-up

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

Porto *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

: 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

: 1987–88, 1990–91 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

: 1986–87 *

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

European Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...

International *

Afro-Asian Cup of Nations The Afro-Asian Cup of Nations, also called the AFC Asia/Africa Challenge Cup, was an intercontinental football competition endorsed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), contested between repr ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

African Games The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and the ...

Individual * Best goal scorer of the

1987–88 European Cup The 1987–88 European Cup was the 33rd season of the European Cup club football tournament. The competition was won for the first time by PSV Eindhoven, who defeated two-time winners Benfica in the final at Neckarstadion in Stuttgart. PSV becam ...

with four goals. *

Team of the Tournament:

African Footballer of the Year The African Footballer of the Year award, presented to the best African association football, footballer each year, has been conferred by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since 1992. Samuel Eto'o and Yaya Touré have won the award the ...

: 1987 *

: Most Valuable Player of the Match Award

*Best player of the

* MasterCard African Team of the 20th Century: 1998 * IFFHS World Player of the Century #62: 2000 * Arab Footballer of the 20th century: 2004 * Algerian Footballer of the 20th century: 2009 (with

Lakhdar Belloumi Lakhdar Belloumi (; born on 29 December 1958) is an Algerian former football player and manager. A former attacking midfielder, he is widely considered the best Algerian player of all time and one of the best players in Africa. He is said to hav ...

) *Algerian Footballer of the Year: Several awards * African Footballer of the 20th century: Fifth place * Golden Foot Legends Award: 2011 * IFFHS Legends: 2016

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Madjer, Rabah 1958 births Living people People from Hussein Dey (commune) Algerian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 players NA Hussein Dey players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Racing Club de France Football players Tours FC players Primeira Liga players FC Porto players La Liga players Valencia CF players Qatar Stars League players Qatar SC players Algeria men's youth international footballers Algeria men's international footballers 1982 FIFA World Cup players 1986 FIFA World Cup players 1980 African Cup of Nations players 1982 African Cup of Nations players 1984 African Cup of Nations players 1986 African Cup of Nations players 1990 African Cup of Nations players 1992 African Cup of Nations players Africa Cup of Nations–winning players Olympic footballers for Algeria Footballers at the 1980 Summer Olympics African Games gold medalists for Algeria African Games gold medalists in football Algerian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Algerian expatriate sportspeople in France Algerian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Algerian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Algerian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar African Footballer of the Year winners Algerian football managers Algeria national football team managers 2002 African Cup of Nations managers Expatriate football managers in Qatar Footballers at the 1978 All-Africa Games 21st-century Algerian people UEFA Champions League–winning players UEFA Champions League top scorers 20th-century Algerian sportsmen