Rabah Saâdane

Rabah Saâdane (2009)

Rabah Saâdane ( Arabic رابح سعدان, DMG Rābaḥ Saʿdān ; * May 3, 1946 in Batna ) is an Algerian football coach and former player . From 2007 to 2010 he once again looked after the national team of his country of origin , the so-called Fennecs ("desert foxes").

Player career

Shortly after the Algerian independence Saâdane played - first as a striker , later mostly in midfield  - in the Ligaelf the AS Batna , one of the oldest football clubs in the former French colony , for which he played 150 league matches, 1968-69 for MO Constantine , then three years with JS El Biar and 1972/73 with USM Blida . Saâdane is said to have played several times for the junior national team and once for Algeria A. Due to injuries sustained in a traffic accident, he had to hang up his soccer boots at the age of 27. He successfully completed his trainer training in Vichy, France . He even received a license to coach clubs in the French professional league , which he did not make use of.

Coaching career

After first stations as a club coach at JS El Biar and JSD Alger, Saâdane worked for the Fédération Algérienne de Football until the late 1980s , where he was responsible for various teams. In 1979 he led the Algerian junior selection to the U-20 World Cup in Japan , where his team only had to bow to a certain Diego Maradona in the quarter-finals to the Argentines . At the same time he was assistant coach of the Fennecs in 1979 and again in 1982 , at Algeria's first World Cup participation in Spain in a team with Mahieddine Khalef and Rachid Mekhloufi ; Saâdane was also one of the victims of the German-Austrian “ Gijón Non-Aggression Pact ”. Four years later he led Algeria, this time as the main responsible, sovereign through the Africa qualification for the World Cup finals in Mexico . There his team lost to Brazil and Spain , only reached a draw against Northern Ireland and had to return home after the preliminary round. As early as 1980, he had also led the country's selection to the quarter-finals at the Olympic football tournament , and apparently at a very high level: a FIFA report on the three African Olympic participants confirmed that the Algerians had, among other things, “good preparation, a balanced playing culture and obvious development”.

Then Rabah Saâdane coached several club teams; with Raja Casablanca he won the Moroccan national championship title in 1988 and the African championship in 1989 . In 1994/95 he worked for the Tunisian club Étoile Sportive du Sahel , later in Saudi Arabia and again in Algeria at the beginning of the 21st century. a. at USM Algiers and ES Sétif , with whom he won the Arab Champions League in 2007 .

The subsequent appointment to the Algerian national coach by the FAF in October 2007 was already his fifth, after he had held this position two more times (1999 and 2003 to 2004) and had also looked after the Fennecs at a continental tournament, the 2004 African Cup . For a short time he also coached the Yemeni national soccer team . The Algerian team led Rabah Saâdane, who is also known as “Cheikh” (“Sheikh”, Arabic شيخ) due to his calm manner and great experience, to the semi-finals of the Africa 2010 and, after a 1-0 win in the decider against Egypt , also for the finals of the World Cup in South Africa . Before this success over Egypt he motivated his players with the words "In football history, many great players were denied the chance to participate in the World Cup - you are only 90 minutes away from it." And added: "I myself am at the end of mine Career, and I would like to complete it with honor [...] So I win this game, because you are capable of it. ” After the Fennecs in South Africa had little success in terms of sport and a short period of thought, Saâdane has nevertheless declared his willingness to withdraw from the expired contract to renew with the FAF, and signed for a continuation through the 2012 African Cup of Nations . However, after the national team only reached a draw in their first qualifying match against Tanzania in early September 2010 , Saâdane ended his engagement early the following day.

Since the beginning of 2011 he was the national coach of Yemen and also worked as a consultant for the French television channel Canal + . In December 2013, Saâdane took over the position of head coach at the Algerian first division club ES Sétif as the successor to Hubert Velud . His term of office was limited to July 2014 from the outset and he was replaced as planned by his assistant coach Kheïreddine Madoui .

Palmarès as a coach

• World championship participant: 1982 (as assistant), 1986, 2010
• Olympic participant: 1980
• Participation in the CAN final round: 1982, 2004, 2010
• Club team African champions: 1989
• Arabian champions of the club teams: 2007
• Moroccan champion: 1988

Notes and sources

1. ↑ Data sheet on africafoot.com and a detailed article on Saâdane's biography
2. ↑ Article from lebuteur.com ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ to wearefootball.org (PDF; 1.6 MB)
4. ↑ see this data sheet ; the alleged Stade Rennes player station there is, however, incorrect - cf. For example this interview ( memento of the original from June 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. and Stéphane Boisson / Raoul Vian: Il était une fois le Championnat de France de Football. Tous les joueurs de la première division de 1948/49 à 2003/04. Neofoot, Saint-Thibault o. J. 
5. ↑ Information from this page of FIFA (on PDF page 16; 14.7 MB)
6. ↑ Report and interview with Saâdane ( Memento of the original from June 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ ^{a b based} on the 1986 FIFA biography (see web links)
8. ↑ Article by El-Moudjahid ; According to this FIFA page , Saâdane should not have been the main culprit.
9. ↑ Hardy Greens : Football World Cup Encyclopedia 1930-2006. AGON, Kassel 2004², ISBN 3-89784-261-0 , p. 330
10. ↑ to goal.com
11. ^ Paul Dietschy / David-Claude Kemo-Keimbou (co-editors FIFA): Le football et l'Afrique. EPA, o. O. 2008, ISBN 978-2-85120-674-9 , p. 139
12. ↑ from the Raja association page  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ to algerie360.com
14. ↑ to dzfoot.com ( memento of the original from January 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
15. ↑ France Football: Le Guide de la Coupe du Monde 2010 , p. 20, and Kicker special issue: WM 2010 , p. 162
16. ↑ Both quotations after this article ( Memento of the original from May 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by So Foot 
17. ↑ Announcement ( Memento of the original from July 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on July 8, 2010 at France Football 
18. ↑ according to France Football ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated July 18, 2010 
19. ↑ "Saâdane resigns" ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at France Football on September 4, 2010 
20. ↑ Report to France Football from January 2nd, 2011

Web links

• Biography on a page of FIFA on the occasion of the 1986 World Cup (page 83 corresponding to the 16th page of the PDF; 14.7 MB)