Djamel Belmadi

Djamel Belmadi (Arabic: جمال بلماضي‎‎; born 27 March 1976) is a retired Algerian footballer and is the current manager of Lekhwiya.

France and Spain

Born in Champigny-sur-Marne, France, Belmadi started his career at Paris Saint-Germain, making his debut in January 1996 against Gueugnon before spending a season at Martigues. He spent the 1997–98 season at Marseille, and then moved to Cannes for the 1998–99 season. In August 1999, he was signed again by Marseille, but immediately went on loan to Spanish club Celta Vigo, where he counted Benni McCarthy of South Africa among his team-mates.

In January 2000, Belmadi returned to Marseille, eventually securing a regular place in the first team's midfield in 2000–01. In January 2001, he made good use of a rare opportunity presented him to play in Marseille's attack, when Liberian maestro George Weah—who had been the main attacker—was away on international duty with the Lone Stars of Liberia. Belmadi seized the opportunity to score a vital goal for Marseille against fellow strugglers Toulouse to keep Marseille just outside the relegation zone.

On 14 April 2001, he scored the winning goal in Marseille's 2–1 victory over Sedan, before a near–60,000 crowd, giving Bernard Tapie's team a much needed lifeline out of relegation.

Manchester City

In January 2003, he had fallen out of favour at Marseille, now managed by Alain Perrin, who agreed to loan him to Kevin Keegan’s Manchester City after a successful trial. He joined ranks with fellow Algerian, Ali Benarbia.

He made his full debut for Manchester City on 29 January 2003 at Maine Road in a 4–1 victory against Fulham (alongside another recruit from the French league – David Sommeil).

In his brief time at Manchester City, he only made 2 starts and 6 substitute appearances, the last of which was in a 1–0 defeat against Southampton on 11 May 2003 in the final league game at Maine Road (when the only goal was scored by Michael Svensson.)

Although Kevin Keegan liked Belmadi's style of play, he conceded that he could not afford another free spirit in a side already containing Eyal Berkovic and Ali Bernabia, so Belmadi returned to Marseille.

In August 2003, he was released by Marseille and played the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons in Qatar with Al-Ittihad and Al-Kharitiyath.

Southampton

In July 2005, after trials at Celtic, Wigan Athletic and Sunderland, he joined Southampton (then playing in the Football League Championship) for their pre-season tour of Scotland. Harry Redknapp initially gave Belmadi a one-month contract, and he made his debut on 6 August 2005 in a 0–0 draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers. His contract was extended until the end of the 2005–06 season after impressive performances in his early games, including a goal against Crewe Alexandra on 27 August 2005. In January 2006 he picked up a thigh injury which put him out of the team until April.

He had, however, done enough to persuade Southampton, now managed by George Burley, to re-sign him for the 2006–07 season, but again this was blighted by injury problems, including a knee injury picked up in September which put him out until February. He picked up several other niggling injuries putting him out for long periods. When fit, there was no doubting Belmadi's ability and quality on the ball whether playing on the left or right of midfield. At his best, he could unpick defences with his passing and kept the ball well. Unfortunately, his injuries restricted him to 40 appearances in his two years at St Mary's. His contract with the Saints expired on 30 June 2007 and was not renewed as Southampton faced up to the financial realities of a third season in the Championship.

Valenciennes

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

He 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.

He last played for Algeria in a World Cup qualifier against Zimbabwe on 20 June 2004, having made 20 appearances scoring 5 goals.

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	26 January 2001	Stade 5 Juillet 1962, Algiers, Algeria	Namibia	1 – 0	1 – 0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
2.	6 October 2001	Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France	France	3 – 1	4 – 1	Friendly match
3.	11 October 2002	Stade 19 Mai 1956, Annaba, Algeria	Chad	3 – 0	4 – 1	2004 African Cup of Nations (qualification)
4.	11 October 2002	Stade 19 Mai 1956, Annaba, Algeria	Chad	4 – 0	4 – 1	2004 African Cup of Nations (qualification)
5.	12 February 2003	Stade 19 Mai 1956, Annaba, Algeria	Belgium	1 – 3	1 – 3	Friendly match

Lekhwiya

Belmadi coaching Lekhwiya in a Qatar Stars League match against Al Sadd

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 clubs 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, he 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, he 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 2–0 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 2014 Gulf Cup of Nations by beating host Saudi Arabia in the final. However, Qatar showed a poor form in 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.

Lekhwiya

On 19 June 2015 he was appointed for the second time in his career to coach Lekhwiya, he was a replacement for Michael Laudrup.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
G	W	D	L	Win %	GF	GA	+/−
Lekhwiya		April 2010	October 2012	82	47	19	16	57.32	104	39	+65
Qatar B		December 2013	March 2014	4	4	0	0	100	10	1	+9
Qatar		March 2014	May 2015	20	9	7	4	45	29	17	+12
Lekhwiya		July 2015	Present	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	+0
Total				106	60	26	20	56.6	143	57	+66

Statistics accurate as of match played 30 March 2015.

While he was with Manchester City, he, along with players Daniel Van Buyten and Vicente Vuoso, was the victim of a theft by two bank workers. At the time 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.

Club

Paris Saint-Germain

• Trophée des Champions (1): 1995
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1996

Individual

• DZFoot d'Or: 2000, 2001

Managerial

Lekhwiya

• Qatar Stars League: 2010–11, 2011–12
• Qatar Emir Cup: 2016

Qatar B

• WAFF Championship: 2014

Qatar

• Gulf Cup of Nations: 2014

• "Belmadi pour une grande première (in French)". lebuteur.com. Archived from the original on 29 January 2007. Retrieved 25 May 2007.