{"id":38243,"date":"2025-12-21T21:14:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/?p=38243"},"modified":"2025-12-21T21:14:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:14:12","slug":"new-faces-emerge-as-algeria-eyes-afcon-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/?p=38243","title":{"rendered":"New Faces Emerge as Algeria Eyes AFCON Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Algiers<\/strong> &#8211; As the Algerian national team, <em>Les Fennecs<\/em>, embark on their quest for a third Africa Cup of Nations title in 2025, a wave of fresh talent is set to experience the tournament for the first time. Under the guidance of coach Vladimir Petkovi\u0107 and led by captain Riyad Mahrez, Algeria aims to redeem themselves after disappointing performances in the previous two editions, where they exited in the group stage.<\/p>\n<p>Petkovi\u0107 has selected a 28-man squad blending seasoned veterans with promising young players. While 16 players have previous AFCON experience, twelve members of the team are poised to make their debut on the continental stage. <\/p>\n<p>The newcomers include goalkeeper Luca Zidane, and field players such as Rafik Belghali, Mehdi Dorval, Jaouen Hadjam, Samir Chergui, Himad Abdelli, Adel Boulbina, Redouane Berkane, Monsef Bakrar, Ibrahim Maze, Ilan Kebbal and Anis Hadj Moussa.<\/p>\n<p>Petkovi\u0107 is hoping to harness the enthusiasm of these new players and focus their energies to avoid past mistakes and achieve success in the competition. The blend of youth and experience could be the key to unlocking Algeria&#8217;s potential. Former Algerian international Mehdi Tahrat expressed optimism about the team&#8217;s prospects, highlighting the talent and potential within the squad. He believes the team has all the ingredients to achieve great results. <\/p>\n<p>The inclusion of these new faces signals a fresh chapter for Algerian football, as the team looks to build towards the future while competing for glory in the present.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/?cat=40\">More Sports articles on DZWatch<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\">DZWatch &#8211; Your News Portal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Algiers &#8211; As the Algerian national team, Les Fennecs, embark on their quest for a third Africa Cup of Nations title in 2025, a wave of fresh talent is set to experience the tournament for the first time. Under the guidance of coach Vladimir Petkovi\u0107 and led by captain Ri&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38246,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38243\/revisions\/38246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}