Amine Gouiri

French-born forward switches international allegiance to Algeria on eve of AFCON 2023

- Mark Gleeson

January 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the major change to eligibility rules for international players that offered the possibility for those previously capped by one country at youth level to play for another at senior level. It was a change that set off many tugs of the heart over the head – or vice versa – in the intervening years, and the latest player to make a decision on his national team future is the 23-year-old Amine Gouiri.

There had been months of speculation over whether he would stick with France, where a future spot with Les Bleus looked a real possibility given his rapid development through the junior ranks, or switch to Algeria, who had been courting him for some while. France have lost many players to Algeria, and vice versa, and Gouiri’s decision has not gone down well, particularly because it took so long and left so many people waiting.