Halilhodzic: I am not a thief

Algeria coach Vahid Halilhodzic shed tears on Monday and denied allegations reported by local media that he is a “thief.”

“I will never accept such baseless criticism. Actually, I wanted to give up in March,” Halilhodzic said in a press conference.

He added that the president of the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) Mohamed Raouraoua offered him a new-8-year-contract to reach the 2022’s World Cup in Qatar. Yet, he announced that he would quit the national team after Brazil’s World Cup for family reasons.

“I am proud of what I have done in Algeria so far. It’s a pity that some people did not like that we qualified to the World Cup. They even criticized my brothers,” he said.

He added that he could not sleep during the days before his final decision about the list of players concerned by the World Cup.

Speaking about player Belkalem, the national coach said he is “exceptional on the human level but he needs to make more efforts.”

“I know my group better than anyone else. To qualify to the second tour, one single achievement is not sufficient. We need to accomplish three successful achievements. Algeria’s best team did not qualify to the second tour,” he added.