Meziane Ighil contests Madjer's remarks: "Belmadi won the AFCON 2019 on his own merits" (video)
The controversy over the ownership of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations has taken a new turn. In a sports show on El-Bilad, Meziane Ighil completely contradicted Rabah Madjer, under whom he had served as an assistant on the national team. The experienced coach claims that the Greens' triumph in Egypt is not a result of the former FC Porto striker's time in charge, attributing all the honors to Djamel Belmadi.
Ighil refuses to claim any share of the success
His response is clear, almost disarming in its honesty. "I do not share his opinion," said the former coach, pushing his reasoning to its conclusion. According to him, the championship-winning team did exist, but the previous management failed to shape it.
"What I regret is that the team that won the CAN-2019 was at our disposal, but we did not exploit it," he explained. A statement that summarizes the failure of a brief tenure at the helm of the Greens, where the same players never displayed the same level of performance.
The former assistant goes even further by questioning his own added value during the Egyptian campaign. "As the assistant to the national coach at the time, I cannot understand what my utility was for Belmadi to win the CAN. He did it alone, and all the credit goes to him," he concluded.
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What Madjer actually stated
To grasp the importance of this clarification, one must go back a year. In a lengthy interview on the Al-Mashhad podcast, Rabah Madjer suggested that the continental title won in Egypt was partly the result of the work done eight months earlier by his own staff, which included the illustrious Djamel Menad and Meziane Ighil.
The former Algerian football star lamented that "some believe everything that is said" about his record with the national team. This statement immediately sparked divided reactions among observers, as the contrast between the two periods seemed striking to the public.
The CAN 2019 remains the Greens' undisputed reference
Seven years later, the trophy raised in Cairo continues to serve as a benchmark for all the national team's performances. Each cycle is compared to that one, and each coach is evaluated based on what Belmadi managed to build in just a few months.
This nostalgia has fueled constant criticism of subsequent mandates. During Vladimir Petkovic's era, several voices in national football criticized the Bosnian coach for his lack of collective vision, with Islam Slimani publicly expressing his dissatisfaction with the absence of a playing identity in the Greens. Medhi Lacen, for his part, used even harsher terms.
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