After six years under the leadership of Djamel Belmadi, Algeria will have a new coach. The Algerian Federation formalized Thursday the arrival of Swiss Vladimir Petkovic to help the Fennecs qualify for the 2025 CAN and the 2026 World Cup.
Published on: 02/29/2024 – 1:45 p.m. Modified on: 02/29/2024 – 2:32 p.m.
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End of a suspense which was no longer one since the rumors were becoming more and more insistent in recent days. The Algerian football federation (FAF) formalized, Thursday February 29, the appointment of Swiss Vladimir Petkovic as head of the Fennecs.
Exit Djamel Belmadi who will have presided over the destiny of his team for six years. If the Franco-Algerian will have given Algeria its second star thanks to the coronation at CAN 2019, he remains on two pitiful consecutive eliminations in the African Cup, from the first round. He is logically one of the nine coaches of the last CAN victims of the poor performances of their players, just like Rigobert Song excluded from the selection of Cameroon.
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The FAF is therefore counting on Vladimir Petkovic to restore luster to the national team. Born in Sarajevo into a Bosnian Croat family and naturalized Swiss in 2003, he spent most of his playing and coaching career in his host country, with stints abroad on the bench of Samsunspor in Turkey and at Lazio Rome, a resident of Serie A with whom he won an Italian Cup against AS Roma, the great rival, in May 2014.
Certainly, the “Doctor” remains a total failure in Bordeaux in Ligue 1, with less than a point taken per match during the 2021-2022 season and a significant participation in the descent of the Girondins into Ligue 2. But he has previously shown his ability to make the selections shine.
He shattered Switzerland’s glass ceiling
He held the reins of the “Nati”, the Swiss national selection from 2014 to 2021. In addition to being a model of longevity in the country of watchmakers, and of regularity since he has always qualified his selection for major competitions and took her out of the group stages, Vladimir Petkovic brought ambition, rigor and confidence.
Under his leadership, the Swiss qualified for all major tournaments. Above all, the former Lazio coach had managed to break through Switzerland’s glass ceiling by helping them win the first knockout match in their history.
All in style: Switzerland overthrew the reigning world champions in the round of 16 of Euro-2021. France, which led 3 goals to 1 10 minutes from the end of the match, ended up losing on penalties. Blues supporters have fond memories of it.
However, despite his long experience, he has never coached in Africa and he will have, at 60 years old, to adapt to the particularities of football on this continent.
The Fennecs new coach is due to arrive in Algiers on Sunday and give his first press conference on Monday March 4. He should announce his objectives for Algeria’s next two big events: CAN 2025 in neighboring and rival Morocco and the 2026 World Cup which will take place in North America.
Algeria began its qualifying campaign for the next World Cup with two victories in two matches. Vladimir Petkovic will have to build on this good start to forget the latest failures of the Fennecs.
After two friendly matches scheduled against Bolivia and South Africa in March, Algeria will face Guinea and Uganda in June as part of the qualifiers for the next World Cup.