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June 23, Kansas City. There is no young player in the starting lineup on Algeria's right flank.
June 23, Kansas City. In Algeria's starting lineup on the right flank, there is no young man to be found.
35 years and 4 months old Riyad Mahrez, wearing the captain's armband, pinned youngster Anis Hadj Moussa firmly to the bench.
This is Algeria's oldest World Cup starting lineup since 1986.
He has no intention of handing over power. The right corridor remains his personal territory.
Rewind 12 years. After his debut at the 2014 Brazil World Cup, Mahrez collected every top-tier script available at club level. The Leicester City miracle, Manchester City's Premier League and Champions League triumphs, then a cash-out stint at Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia.
But the national team's ledger is a mess of bad debts.
In 2018 and 2022, Algeria failed to even touch the grass of the World Cup for two consecutive tournaments.
Taking a high salary in Saudi Arabia is business; returning to the national team for the World Cup is about filling the hole dug 12 years ago.
Algeria's current squad has a total value of €265.1 million. In European football, that sum might not even buy a relegation-battling team's starting lineup, but in Africa, it's top-tier. Midfield core Ibrahim Maza alone is valued at €40 million.
The money has been poured in, but the PTSD from missing two consecutive World Cups still lingers.
The World Cup qualifiers in Africa were conquered with a dominant record. But this flashy process can't wash away the embarrassment of elimination in qualifiers over the past eight years. This team, built with cash, needs Mahrez to mend the 12-year gap.
Vladimir Petković took over in February 2024, deploying a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation. In this system emphasizing possession and wide breakthroughs, the right-back's overlapping run is merely a decoy.
When Mahrez gets the ball, he cuts inside directly to exploit half-space gaps. The right corridor becomes his personal solo drill.
At 35, his body has long lost the explosive pace of his peak. He relies on changes of rhythm to devour that flank. In the World Cup qualifier against Somalia, a 3-0 win that secured qualification, Mahrez scored and assisted, dominating the right-wing attack with his own manipulation.
When the final squad was announced in late May, Mahrez revealed it himself: this is his last World Cup.
The coach needs him to break stalemates and, more importantly, to command the locker room. Giving him the ball is the most effective quick fix for this possession system.
Against Jordan, Mahrez delivered an assist.
Since Roger Milla at age 38 in 1990, no African player over 30 years had provided a World Cup assist until Mahrez became the oldest African World Cup assist provider since 1990.
The ball was passed, the scoreboard ticked.
On the day the squad was announced, he had already started the countdown on his national team career.