Christian Gourcuff is definitely making moves to expand Algeria’s talent pool by targeting players with dual nationality. Besides the Lyon talents—Rachid Ghezzal, Ishak Belfodil Benzia, Yassine Zeffane, and Nabil Fekir—he’s got his eyes on Mehdi Abid (Panathinaikos) and Baghdad Bounedjah (ES Sahel).
He’s also monitoring Lyès Houri (Valenciennes) and Ahmed Kashi (Metz), although those two might first come through the U23 Olympic squad under Pierre-André Schürmann, who’s about to take charge of the Algerian U23s.
Gourcuff’s approach shows he wants to build a strong, versatile squad for the future by blending established talents with promising dual nationals. It’ll be interesting to see if Abid and Bounedjah accept the call-up this time around!
