Atal: “I Paid A Heavy Price And I Rule Out Returning To Play In France”.

Algerian international football player Youssef Atal said he did not feel supported by his former team in his case with the French judiciary and that he paid a heavy price in sporting, legal and financial terms, which led him to land in the Turkish league with Turkish team Adana Demirspor in last winter’s transfers.
The Algerian international was sentenced to eight months in prison in France last January on charges of inciting hatred and was forced to pay a fine of 45,000 euros after the court’s decision there.
The Algerian international said in an interview with the French magazine So Foot: “Nice Club did not force me to leave, but I did not feel supported and the discourse within the team changed every time”. Commenting on his departure from the French club months before the end of his contract, he said: “I paid a high price, athletically, legally and financially. I felt that there was a tendency to exclude me from the team”.
Youssef Atal thanked his former coach, Djamel Belmadi, for giving him the opportunity to participate in the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations despite his absence from the competition due to the punishment and suspension imposed on him by his club, Nice.
Commenting on Belmadi’s call-up to the African Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire, he said: “I was determined to play in the African Cup of Nations to restore the footballing atmosphere and return to training to help the national team and coach Belmadi, who had great faith in me.”
He added: “I did not want to waste the African Cup of Nations and I wanted to give everything for my country and my past”. Atal also thanked everyone who supported him during the crisis he went through, saying: “I enjoyed the support of all Algerians and many people around the world. I thank them, but I expected support from other people as well, but it did not happen”.
In this interview, Youssef Atal ruled out returning to play in France, although he did not completely close the door on the possibility of doing so in the future.
Atal participated with the “Greens” in the first preparatory match for the “Petkovic version” of the “Greens” against the Bolivian national team, where he played a match on the same level, and missed the second match against South Africa for technical reasons, and is currently considered a key player in the national team.