Scouting Report: Hichem Boudaoui

Club football on the African continent is largely dominated by North African clubs like Al Ahly, Zamalek, and Espérance Sportive de Tunis. At the national team level, Egypt hold the record for most AFCON wins (7 titles), with their last coming in 2010. Five editions later, and the trophy would return to Northern Africa, this time to Algeria.

Led by Manchester City’s Riyad Mahrez, the Desert Foxes swept every nation aside en route to their second ever AFCON title last summer. Algeria's squad was made entirely of players who played outside of Africa, except for one. Then playing for local side Paradou AC who finished third in the 2019 Algerian Championship, Hichem Boudaoui was one of the youngest players in the tournament at the age of 19.

His playing time at the tournament was limited, with the likes of Ismaël Bennacer, Mehdi Abeid and Adlène Guedioura ahead of him in manager Djamel Belmadi's rotation. But in the game where he played the full 90 minutes, against Tanzania, Boudaoui put on an impressive display, with a 93.6% pass completion rate, including 2 key passes, and winning 5 out of 13 duels.