Christian Gourcuff resigns as Algeria team coach

The coach of the national football team, Christian Gourcuff has decided to sever his contract binding him to the Algerian Football Federation until June 2018.

Immediately after returning from Ethiopia with the Greens, the latter spoke with some players at the National Technical Centre of Sidi Moussa in suburban Algiers, saying he would officially quit the technical helm, adding that he wouldn’t  be present at the upcoming round next June of  qualifying matches notably versus the Seychelles.

This decision baffled many of his capped players who didn’t quite understand the resignation decision of their coach after the positive results achieved by the Algeria football line-up recently.

Gourcuff has put forth family reasons for his decision but actually the reason is a disagreement with some players of the national squad and his testy relationship with some sections of the local press that made him throw in the towel before the end of the CAN-2017 in Gabon.

Gourcuff is widely expected to join the French first-league club of Girondins de Bordeaux next season, according to Echorouk sources.

Moreover, according to our sources, the President of the FAF Federation, Mohamed Raouraoua has already in mind the successor of Gourcuff and who will start working immediately with the Greens after the official departure of the current team coach.

Sofiane Feghouli and his teammates made it clear they would like him to stay, with the Algerian Football Federation reportedly reticent to let him go as well.

Gourcuff joined the Algerian national team in August 2014. He led the Greens to the finals of CAN 2015 in Equatorial Guinea, where he reached the quarterfinals, eliminated by Ivory Coast.

Now, lying top of Group J of the 2017 AFCON qualifiers on 10 points with just two fixtures to go, the ‘Fennecs’ of Algeria just need a draw from their next trip to Seychelles to seal their ticket for the tournament’s finals in Gabon.