Rachid Ghezzal Struggles to Return to Belmadi’s Options

The secret of the strong return of the Algerian international Rachid Ghezzal in the recent period, and his good performance through scoring and his skills in the creation of goals, after the decline in his star levels compared to what he presented last season was revealed by the Turkish newspaper Miliat in a report on the star of the Turkish club Besiktas.

Rachid Ghezzal was awarded last season the best player in the Turkish Premier League and led the Besiktas club to win a historic double (the local league and cup) after he scored 18 goals and provided 8 assists in 35 games in various competitions.

The Algerian international, far from the choices of the national coach, Djamel Belmadi, has long failed, since the beginning of the current season, to repeat the levels he presented last season and was subjected to strong criticism during the first phase of the Turkish League, before returning recently to the front of the media news.

The Turkish sports daily Fotomaç published on its website a report on the former French Olympique Lyonnais graduate Rachid Ghezzal and said; “His level recently returned to draw a smile on the faces of the club’s officials, members of the technical staff and fans”.

“He reminds them of his old days with the club last season. Ghezzal was doing additional training last month and focused in particular on the physical aspect. The Algerian player gave great importance to changing his diet. He was constantly developing his performance. Rachid Ghezzal, whose contract was bought from Leicester City for 3 million euros at the beginning of the season and signed a good contract with Besiktas, has become very ambitious due to the negative criticism against him”, the website added.

Rachid Ghezzal remains far from his well-known levels this season after he was satisfied with scoring 4 goals and making only two goals in 31 matches in various competitions, at a time when some Turkish media confirmed that the problem was not with the Algerian star, but with his other colleagues who did not take advantage of his high skill in creating opportunities to provide decisive passes.

Ghezzal seeks to return to the Algerian national team in the coming period and before the double match against Cameroon, next month after the coach of the “Desert Warriors” Djamel Belmadi excluded him from participating in the last African Cup of Nations due to the decline in his technical levels.