Algeria

The projected first choice, and the man whose June arrival quietened what had been the squad's most unsettled room for months. The son of Zinedine, capped only a handful of times and carrying a French upbringing into the Algerian shirt his own father never wore, he had drifted to the second tier with Granada this season after a career spent trying to step out from under the most famous surname in the French game. The international gloves, then, are a kind of beginning rather than a coronation: at twenty-eight he is in the years a keeper would expect to be settled somewhere, and he is only now arriving at one. The case for him is recent and specific. He was, by the local accounts, the best player on the pitch in Algeria's 1-0 win over the Netherlands in Rotterdam on 3 June, a string of saves that did more to settle the goalkeeping question than any of the spring's anxious debate. Petkovic names no XI until matchday and the No. 1 remains, strictly, a projection; but if the form holds, this is a footballer reclaiming both a national identity and a career on the same stage, and the structure of the whole side — compact, content to defend deep and counter — leans on him to make the one save that keeps a low-scoring game low.

The home-based goalkeeper of the group, a thirty-one-year-old at USM Alger who carries the domestic league's case into a squad otherwise dominated by the European diaspora. Barely capped, he is here as cover and as the local thread in the keeping department rather than as a contender for the shirt, the kind of experienced league professional a tournament squad wants in reserve. His World Cup is most likely to be spent watching, but his selection is a small statement that the home championship still has a place in this Algeria, even as the team's spine is drawn from France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The third goalkeeper and the rawest of the three, a Swiss-based keeper of a single cap brought along for the experience more than for any expectation of minutes. At twenty-six he is at the very start of his international life, plucked from the modest surroundings of Stade Nyonnais into a World Cup squad — an unlikely leap, and one best read as a season in the environment rather than an audition for the team. He is depth in the truest sense: present to train, to learn the rhythm of a major tournament, and to be ready should the unthinkable run of injuries reach him.

The senior figure of the back line and one of the last threads connecting this side to the great recent Algerian teams, a centre-back of well over a hundred caps who organises the defence and carries its institutional memory. At thirty-four he is firmly a veteran, in the late chapter of a long European career that took him through Reims, Real Betis and Villarreal before this season at Lille, where he has been a squad and rotation presence rather than an automatic week-to-week starter — the natural arc of a defender deep into his thirties. For Algeria, though, he remains the projected right-sided centre-back and the calm voice alongside Bensebaïni, strong in the air and trusted to read the game; the live worry, the one the Netherlands friendly aired, is that quick movement between the lines can pull him into footraces he would rather avoid. This is, in all likelihood, his last World Cup, a dozen years on from the Porto Alegre night against Germany that defined his generation — the elder presence the manager wants in a defence that is new almost everywhere else.

The defensive leader of the side and its left-sided centre-back, the organiser whose presence makes the back line feel like an adult tournament defence — aerially commanding, vocal, and a genuine threat at both ends from set pieces. At thirty-one he is in the experienced middle of his career, a left-footer whose move from Borussia Mönchengladbach to Borussia Dortmund has kept him at the top of the German game, and his production from defence this season has been striking: five goals and two assists across twenty-one Bundesliga matches, the numbers of a centre-back who matters in both boxes. The shadow over his tournament is fitness rather than form. He missed the start of the Netherlands friendly and was reported back in full training only on 7 June, days before the opener, which leaves Petkovic the worst kind of choice at the worst moment — his most reliable defender carrying a sharpness question, or a younger pairing learning on the job against Argentina, with Belaïd, Chergui and Tougaï the alternatives behind him. If he is right, Algeria's left side is the best they have owned in years at both ends; on Mahrez's delivery, his head is one of the few reliable ways this team scores when controlled possession is scarce. Part of the experienced spine that remembers how to compete at this level, asked to hold it together one more time.

The engine of Algeria's left side and the best defensive recruitment the country has made in a decade, a ball-carrying left-back who is the cleanest way this team turns pressure into territory. He overlaps, underlaps into midfield zones and simply drives the ball up the pitch; the whole left-loaded build-up is organised around him, and he is, more than anyone, the reason Algeria can move from a deep block into a counter at speed. At twenty-four he is moving into his peak and at his first World Cup, having completed the move that confirmed his standing — from Wolverhampton to Manchester City and Guardiola's tutelage, where a hamstring-interrupted season still brought around seventeen Premier League appearances with two assists and the carrying and chance-creation numbers of a full-back near the top of his profession. The flip side is the space he vacates: when he goes, the channel behind him opens, and against Argentina whether the midfield screens it in time is one of the match's quiet hinges. If Petkovic chooses the three-centre-back shell he tested against Uruguay, Aït-Nouri becomes a wing-back and that left flank matters even more. He is the modern face of this team and the foundation it should be built around across the next cycle — the rare diaspora talent arriving at his prime exactly as Algeria return to the global stage.

The projected right-back for the opener, picked — if he starts — for what he denies rather than what he offers going forward, the defensive answer to a position Algeria have not truly settled since Youcef Atal's old certainty was left at home. A home-based defender with USM Alger and only a handful of caps, he is the least heralded member of the probable eleven, and his selection at twenty-six speaks to how thin the right side has become: the choice is between his solidity and Rafik Belghali's attacking drive, neither of them an established international. He had an uneven but useful test against Cody Gakpo in Rotterdam, exactly the kind of duel his inclusion is meant to win. This is a first major tournament for a player from the domestic league reaching it later and more quietly than the European names around him — squad-depth pedigree thrust, by circumstance, toward the starting line.

The attacking alternative at right-back and the other half of the team's least-settled selection, a twenty-three-year-old at Hellas Verona who offers the overlapping drive Abada does not. He came on for Abada against the Netherlands and gave Algeria more thrust down that flank, which is precisely the trade Petkovic is weighing for Argentina: defensive duels or forward threat on the right. Emerging rather than established, with a Serie A grounding and a first World Cup ahead of him, he is part of the younger, faster diaspora layer grafted around the survivors. The projected eleven leans to Abada's defensive profile for the opener, which leaves Belghali as the live challenger rather than the incumbent — but the call is genuinely open, and either way the right side remains the part of the team that lacks an authoritative first choice.

The deputy at left-back, behind Aït-Nouri in a position where Algeria are unusually well stocked, a twenty-three-year-old at Young Boys whose own form has been good enough to start for many a national side. In the Swiss top flight this season he returned a healthy two goals and four assists across twenty league matches, the attacking output of a modern full-back, and his aerial work and carrying give Petkovic a like-for-like option should Aït-Nouri fall or the schedule demand a rest. Emerging and at his first tournament, he sits in the rotation rather than the eleven by the simple misfortune of playing the same role as one of the country's best footballers — depth of real quality rather than a passenger.

A centre-back of the home league, JS Kabylie's representative in the squad, and one of the alternatives behind the projected Mandi–Bensebaïni pairing. At twenty-seven he is in his prime, and he played into the Netherlands friendly, where the local notes flagged that the centre-back partnership had difficult moments — a reminder that the cover behind the first choice is functional rather than commanding. His role is depth: the domestic-based defender who steps in if Bensebaïni's fitness does not hold or the manager wants a change, valued for his presence in the air. A first World Cup for a player whose football has been made at home rather than in Europe, which carries its own weight in a squad shaped by the diaspora.

A late, lightly capped addition to the centre-back depth, a twenty-seven-year-old at Paris FC whose inclusion was itself a small selection story — the local reporting had to resolve a confusion between him and Mehdi Dorval before settling on Chergui in the final group. His presence is depth and cover behind the senior pairing; with only a few caps to his name he arrives at a first World Cup as a squad option rather than a contender for minutes. A peak-age defender getting his grounding in the international game at the deep end, here more for the body he offers in reserve than for a likely role on the pitch.

A centre-back based outside Europe, at Espérance de Tunis, and the most experienced of the reserve defenders behind Mandi and Bensebaïni, with a respectable haul of caps for a player of twenty-six. He has been a regular part of the wider squad rather than the matchday eleven, the kind of dependable, well-drilled defender a tournament group needs in its second rank. His arc has run through North African club football rather than the European leagues that produced most of his teammates, and his World Cup is likely to be one of readiness rather than minutes — cover should the back line need it, valued for aerial steadiness and tournament temperament.

The screening midfielder and the structural tell of how Algeria intend to play, the man who sits in front of the centre-backs and whose position governs whether the side is controlling a game or absorbing it — the deeper he drops, the more content Algeria are to defend and spring. At twenty-eight he is in his prime, a holding midfielder of more than fifty caps who returned to Twente in the Netherlands after a spell in the Premier League, settling back into the rhythm of a league where he is trusted with real minutes. His job for the national team is unglamorous and essential: protect the channels either side of him, rest-defend when Aït-Nouri pushes high, and give the more creative players ahead of him the licence to go. Against Argentina, whether his double pivot can shield the spaces between the lines is the first defensive question of the tournament. Part of the settled middle of this team rather than its headline acts, the quiet anchor the whole compact shape leans on.

The surprise of the selection and one of its better stories, a left-footed midfielder recalled to the World Cup frame twelve years after his only previous one, restored to the side at the very moment Ismael Bennacer was left at home. At thirty-one, after a career that took him from Tottenham and Schalke through serious injury and a long road back, he has rebuilt himself at Lille into a useful Ligue 1 presence — two goals and two assists across twenty-six league matches this season, much of it from the bench, the numbers of a player managing his minutes rather than dominating games. For Algeria his value is in possession and in the recovery phases: he drops to take the first pass off the centre-backs, clips the ball into the wide channels, and the local notes from Rotterdam rated him among the better outfield players on the night, useful in pressing and winning the ball back. His is the redemption thread of the squad, a veteran with a single, distant World Cup behind him handed an unlikely second act — the experienced head Petkovic chose over the cleaner controller he left out, and a bridge between the team's memory and its renewal.

The youngest projected starter and the clearest sign of where this team is heading, a twenty-year-old asked to be the third midfielder whose job is to decide whether Algeria have control of a game or only transition. He carries the ball between the lines and gives the side a verticality the older legs around him cannot, and the local reading after the Netherlands match — where he and Fares Chaïbi changed the second-half energy from the bench and were tied to the decisive action — is what has nudged him ahead of the more experienced Houssem Aouar. At Bayer Leverkusen, a German champion's environment, his first full season at the top level brought three goals and four assists across twenty-eight Bundesliga matches with twenty starts, the steady accumulation of a footballer being entrusted with real responsibility very early. Born in Germany and choosing Algeria, he is the most exciting piece of the country's future, here to learn at a World Cup and, on current form, to start one. His role is live rather than nailed — Aouar and Chaïbi are real alternatives — but the direction of travel is unmistakably toward him.

A creative midfielder pressing for the third midfield berth, and the most productive provider in the squad's German contingent, a twenty-three-year-old at Eintracht Frankfurt whose delivery is more direct than Maza's carrying. His Bundesliga season was a strong one as a creator — a return in the region of two goals and nine assists across twenty-eight matches, among the better chance-creation numbers in his position — and he is, with Maza, the verticality Petkovic turned to from the bench against the Netherlands to lift the team. Emerging into his prime and at his first major tournament, he is a live alternative rather than settled depth: the call between him, Maza and Aouar for the spot ahead of the pivot is one of the side's genuine contests. Part of the diaspora layer of speed and creativity grafted around the survivors, and a player whose minutes may well grow as the games come.

The most decorated name among the midfield options below the first choice, a one-time Lyon prodigy and France youth international who chose Algeria, now plying his trade in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Ittihad. At twenty-seven he should be in his peak, but the trajectory has flattened: the move to Saudi Arabia took him out of the European shop window, and the Netherlands friendly was not kind to him — the local notes had him struggling in the deeper relay role before he was replaced, part of the swing that brought Maza and Chaïbi on. He remains in the frame and could start if Petkovic chooses experience over youth, but the momentum is against him. A footballer of real touch whose international standing rests now on what he can still offer in a rotation rather than on the higher billing his talent once promised — squad creativity rather than a certain starter.

A combative, energetic midfielder from Nice, and a depth-and-rotation option whose tournament began as a fitness watch — he was reported fully back in full training only on 7 June, alongside Bensebaïni, days before the opener. At twenty-six he is in his prime, a busy presser and runner who offers a different profile to the more measured Zerrouki and Bentaleb, the kind of legs a manager values late in a tight match or across a congested group. His role here is from the bench rather than the eleven, and the late return to training tempers expectations of early minutes. A useful, hard-running option in midfield depth, valued for intensity more than for the final ball.

One of the youngest and least-capped midfielders in the group, a twenty-two-year-old who has quietly been one of the squad's most-played footballers at club level this season, an ever-present at Charleroi in the Belgian top flight. There he started thirty-three of thirty-five league games, adding five goals from midfield — the heavy minutes of a young player trusted completely by his club, even as he remains on the fringes for the national side. Emerging and at his first World Cup, he is depth rather than a likely contributor, here on the strength of a full, productive season and a ceiling the federation rates. A grounding pick: present to develop in a major-tournament environment more than to feature in it.

The captain, the emotional reference point of the whole side, and — for the first time in his Algeria career — a genuine tactical question rather than an automatic name on the sheet. He starts wide on the right and drifts inside onto his left foot to slow the game and pick the final ball, the one pass nobody else in this squad can make, and on his delivery the set pieces that may be Algeria's likeliest route to a goal against the group's stronger sides. At thirty-five this is, in all realism, his last World Cup, the closing act of a career that carried the country to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and made him, for a decade, the face of Algerian football. His club season at Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia was productive in the creative register that now defines his game — four goals and eight assists across twenty-seven Saudi Pro League starts, among the division's leading creators, the output of a footballer who sets up far more than he scores. The complication, chewed over in the Algerian press for two months, is that Petkovic's most balanced recent shape — the wingless, three-centre-back structure tried against Uruguay — barely has room for him, and that Anis Hadj Moussa scored the winner against the Netherlands after replacing him keeps the debate honest. If Algeria need control of a tight game, it is still Mahrez; if they need speed and pressure against a side that will give them the ball back rarely, it may not be. He is the last of the golden generation still standing, the compass the manager has kept while building a faster team around him — and how much the side bends toward him or away from him is the single question that will shape its tournament from within.

The runner the whole attack is now built around, and the clearest evidence of how this Algeria has changed — where the great recent sides waited for a creator's moment, this one wins the ball and releases Amoura into the space behind. He plays on the shoulder of the last defender, the direct outlet the instant possession turns over, and the team's job is to find him early; he is not a hold-up centre-forward, and through long defensive phases, left to feed on scraps, he can disappear and the counter loses its point. At twenty-six he is in his peak and at his first World Cup, having turned a move to VfL Wolfsburg into a strong Bundesliga campaign — eight goals and three assists across thirty appearances — and into the status of a forward Europe now takes seriously. For Algeria he was the decisive figure of qualification, scoring both goals in the 3-0 win over Somalia in October that sealed the return after twelve years away. He is the new attacking grammar of the side and a central piece of its future, the pace and movement that lets Mahrez serve the attack as often as the attack serves him — the player whose runs, more than anyone's touch, will decide how dangerous this team can be.

The projected centre-forward, though his role is as much a connector as a finisher — he drops off the front to link the counter and let Amoura run beyond him, the pivot between the midfield and the runner. At twenty-six he is in his prime and at his first World Cup, off the best club season of his career: a move to Olympique de Marseille brought eight goals and three assists across twenty-two Ligue 1 matches, a forward returning to form at one of France's biggest clubs after earlier, more uneven spells at Nice and Rennes. His chance-creation numbers are high for a striker, which is the point of him in this side — he makes the attack join up rather than simply finishing it. The caveat the Netherlands friendly raised is that he can have quiet games, and Algeria need more than link play from the position against opponents they will not dominate. A peak-age footballer who has rebuilt his standing this season, asked to be the selfless hub of a transition attack rather than its top scorer.

The faster, more vertical alternative to Mahrez on the right, a left-footed winger whose existence is precisely what makes the captaincy debate real rather than sentimental — and who, after coming on for Mahrez and scoring the winner against the Netherlands on 3 June, has turned himself from a bench spark into a live tactical argument. He is more direct and explosive than the man ahead of him, an attacker who runs at the back line rather than setting tempo in front of it, and the choice between starting him and finishing matches with him may be the most consequential call Petkovic makes. At twenty-four he is in the middle of a breakout he has thoroughly earned: his season at Feyenoord was outstanding, eleven goals and six assists across thirty-four Eredivisie matches, among the higher-rated wide players in the Dutch league and the kind of campaign that announces a footballer to Europe. This is his first major tournament, and he arrives as the living evidence that Algeria's right side can be quicker, less ceremonial and more dangerous in behind — the future of the position, pressing the present for the shirt, and one of the brightest pieces of the country's next decade.

The bolt from the second tier, a twenty-three-year-old winger of a single cap who forced his way into the squad on the back of a remarkable goalscoring season in Italy's Serie B. At Frosinone he was close to unstoppable for a player at that level — fifteen goals across thirty-seven matches, almost ever-present, the kind of return that pulls a fringe international into a World Cup frame. Left-footed and capable of playing off the right, he is squad depth and an attacking wildcard rather than a probable contributor, his international standing built almost entirely on club output rather than caps. A first major tournament for an emerging forward whose selection rewards a breakout campaign and bets on a ceiling the federation clearly fancies; minutes would be a bonus on top of an unlikely call-up.

A wide attacker now based in Qatar with Al-Duhail, and one of the younger, lightly capped pieces of the squad's forward depth, a twenty-three-year-old whose game is built on direct running and a goal threat from the flank. His season in the Qatari league was productive in both columns — five goals and five assists across nineteen matches — the balanced output of an attacker trusted to both score and create. Emerging and at his first World Cup, he sits well down the wide-forward pecking order behind Mahrez, Hadj Moussa and the rest, his role squarely one of depth. A player whose career has taken the Gulf route rather than the European one, here to add legs and width to the bench rather than to start.

The squad's spare centre-forward, a tall, left-footed target man at Győri ETO in Hungary and the most fringe of the attacking options, with barely a cap to his name. At twenty-six he offers a contrasting profile to the runners and connectors ahead of him — a physical presence in the box, the kind of body a manager might turn to in the closing minutes of a game that needs a different shape up front. His football has been made well off the main European stage, and his presence is depth and an emergency option rather than anything Algeria expect to lean on. A first World Cup for a player reaching it from the margins, here for the rare scenario that calls for height and hold-up play more than pace.