Djamel Belmadi

Djamel Belmadi (; born 25 March 1976) is a professional football coach and former player. He is the current head coach of Qatar Stars League side Al Duhail. Born in France, he represented Algeria internationally between 2000 and 2004.

As a player he was midfielder who had spells in Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille, Cannes and Valenciennes. He also briefly played in La Liga for Celta Vigo and in the Premier League for Manchester City. Later on in his career he returned to England and played several seasons at Southampton whilst the club were in the Football League. He also played for Martigues, Al-Ittihad and Al-Kharitiyath. Born in France, he played internationally for Algeria and was capped 20 times.

As a coach, Belmadi has managed Lekhwiya, Qatar B, Qatar, Al-Duhail

Valenciennes After being released by Southampton, Belmadi returned to France and joined Valenciennes. He retired from football in 2009.

International career Belmadi made his debut for Algeria on 9 July 2000 against Morocco. He was part of the Algerian 2004 African Nations Cup team, who finished second in their group in the first round of competition before being defeated by Morocco in the quarter-finals. Belmadi last played for Algeria in a World Cup qualifier against Zimbabwe on 20 June 2004, having made 20 appearances and scoring 5 goals.

Managerial career

Lekhwiya

In the summer of 2010, Belmadi was appointed as the head coach of newly promoted Qatar Stars League club Lekhwiya. In his first season with the club, he led them to the 2010–11 Qatar Stars League title for the first time in the club's history. He also led them to the final of the 2010 Sheikh Jassem Cup, where they lost to Al Arabi. For the second time, Lekhwiya won the 2011–12 Qatar Stars League title, under the management of Belmadi. He resigned on 8 October 2012 after a bad start of the 2012–13 season.

Qatar B In December 2013, Belmadi was appointed as head coach of the Qatar B team, which was set to participate in the 2014 WAFF Championship on home soil. He called up a number of foreigners to the national team, including compatriots Boualem Khoukhi and Karim Boudiaf after being informed by the QFA that they were eligible to compete for Qatar. Qatar were crowned champions of the 2014 WAFF Championship after defeating Jordan on 7 January. They finished the tournament undefeated, with 10 goals scored and a single goal conceded.

Qatar senior team On 15 March 2014, Belmadi was unveiled as the new head coach of the Qatar senior football team, replacing Fahad Thani. His first match as Qatar coach was a 0–0 draw with Macedonia. He led his team to a notable 1–0 first-ever victory over Australia in a friendly match on 14 October 2014, after having posted a 5–0 win over Lebanon and a 3–0 victory over Uzbekistan in their two previous matches. In correspondence to Qatar's performance in the aforementioned friendly matches, sports channel Al Kass stated that Qatar is "showing signs of evolution with Belmadi" and that the team was "undergoing a renewal." He led Qatar to win the 22nd Arabian Gulf Cup by beating host Saudi Arabia in the final. However, Qatar showed a poor form in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup and was eliminated in the group stages after three consecutive defeats by United Arab Emirates, Iran and Bahrain. He was dismissed from his post on 30 April 2015.

Al-Duhail On 19 June 2015, Belmadi was appointed for the second time in his career to coach Lekhwiya; he was a replacement for Michael Laudrup. In 2017, the club was rebranded to Al-Duhail SC following the absorption of El Jaish.

Algeria On 2 August 2018, Belmadi became the manager of the Algeria national team. At his second international football championship (having coached Qatar in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup), Belmadi's Algerian team was not considered a serious contender for the trophy because Algeria's performance in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification was not promising, despite topping the group with two draws to Gambia and an away-loss to Benin. The unimpressive qualification campaign increased the pressure on Belmadi.

Despite heavy criticism, Belmadi led Algeria to success and earned his first international trophy. Algeria defeated every opponent on its road to the final of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) held in Egypt, including two victories over Senegal in the group stage and the final. Algeria won its second continental title and became the North African second team, after Egypt, to win more than one AFCON trophy.

In the 2021 AFCON, the defending champions Algeria finished last in their group to be eliminated from the tournament. During the 2022 World Cup qualification third round, Algeria failed to qualify to the final tournament in Qatar, having lost on away goals rule against Cameroon following a 2–2 draw on aggregate.

In January 2023, Belmadi extended his contract until 2026.

In the 2023 AFCON held in Ivory Coast, Algeria led by Belmadi exited the tournament after their defeat against Mauritania, without scoring any win in the group phase. On 24 January 2024, Belmadi's position as national team manager was terminated by mutual consent. However, despite immediately resigning himself in front of the players, Belmadi asked the FAF for a severance package worth 29 months of salary, equivalent to €7 million. Faced with a refusal from the FAF, he then threatened to bring the matter to the FIFA for a ruling.

Return to Al-Duhail In June 2025, Belmadi returned to Al-Duhail for his third spell as head coach.

Bank theft incident While Belmadi was with Manchester City, he, along with players Daniel Van Buyten and Vicente Vuoso, were the victims of a theft by two bank workers. At the time that Belmadi left Manchester City, he left £230,000 in an account with the Co-operative Bank. In total, the bank workers stole more than £350,000 from the accounts of the three players.

In January 2006, the bank workers, Paul Sherwood, a cashier, and Paul Hanley, his supervisor, were jailed for 32 months and 12 months respectively.

Career statistics

Scores and results list Algeria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Belmadi goal.

Managerial statistics + Managerial record by team and tenure

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Algerian Ballon d'or: 2001

As a manager Al-Duhail

Individual Qatar Stars League Manager of the Season : 2017–18 CAF Coach of the Year: 2019 IFFHS CAF Best National Coach: 2021