{"id":3698,"date":"2023-02-01T19:48:27","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T19:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=3698"},"modified":"2023-02-01T20:08:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T20:08:54","slug":"heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2023\/02\/01\/heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroes<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The CHAN 2022 Mascot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (February 1st<\/sup> 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legends<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s often said, \u2018Don\u2019t meet your heroes.\u2019 Well I have and it wasn\u2019t a let-down \u2013 far from it \u2013 it was a great honour for me. A gentle unobtrusive gentleman, like the late Zambian icon, Ginger Pensulo, the current Vice-president of FAF (the Algerian Football Federation), Mohamed Maouche also used his immense football talent for the greater good of Algeria, Africa and football. Maouche had been pre-selected for France\u2019s World Cup squad, but chose to help organise the FLN Team instead. Maouche escaped to Switzerland, but after not finding those he was due to meet, he returned to France. Finding out that the others had escaped France, he tried to leave again but was captured and imprisoned. By 1960, Maouche managed to join the others in Tunis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is an exemplary story of a wonderful human being who is a credit to football. His is a story of sacrifice in a sport too often condemned without a fair hearing. While the elite today may deserve some condemnation, Maouche is the opposite. His story is one of sacrifice, decency \u2013 the very best that football can offer. This is a story football should be proud of. Africa and its football should shout his name loudly \u2013 cherishing and celebrating the contribution that Maouche made not only to the sport he graced but also to a continent which benefited from a team of heroes. The glorious FLN Team and its contribution should never be forgotten, and not just by Algerians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continues to Serve<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well into his 80s, Maouche continues to serve African football. He was appointed Vice-President of FAF on November 1st<\/sup> 2021, a very fitting day in Algerian history. It was the 67th<\/sup> anniversary of the start of Algeria\u2019s war for independence, which was led by the Front de Lib\u00e9ration Nationale (FLN \u2013 the National Liberation Front). While football often gets a bad press sadly reminiscent of Mark Antony\u2019s oration at Julius C\u00e6sar\u2019s funeral \u2018the evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones,\u2019 the FLN team proved the opposite. Maouche is one of only three members of that heroic Algerian team still alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The magnificent Rachid Mekhloufi and Abderrahmane Defnoun are the others. Maouche is the only one of three still living in Algeria. Mekhloufi lives in neighbouring, Tunisia, and Defnoun in France. Sadly both Mekhloufi and Defnoun are unwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Algeria rightly reveres and cherishes these footballing icons of the liberation struggle \u2013 a classic example of football and politics not only mixing but doing so for the greater good of humanity. Algeria\u2019s treatment of the FLN Team is an example for all Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, his playing days long past, Mohamed Maouche continues to serve Algerian football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the greats of Algerian football that he coached is the late libero, Miloud Hadefi, after whom Oran\u2019s Stadium is named. Hadefi impressed the late great Pel\u00e9 (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) who described him as Africa\u2019s Beckenbauer. It is the only stadium used in Algeria\u2019s African Nations Championship (CHAN) that is named after a footballer \u2013 all the others are named after events in Algeria\u2019s liberation struggle or after African liberation struggle icons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Birth of an African Legend and Hero<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Algeria\u2019s battle for independence against colonialism, white supremacy and the horrors of foreign rule was pockmarked with gross brutality. It threw up martyrs and also heroes who survived to tell the tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohamed Maouche is one such hero. He is 86 years-old and doesn\u2019t look it. A decade before I was born, Maouche showed immense talent. He began playing as a teenager in 1953 for the Algerian club AS Saint-Eug\u00e8ne, a club based in a French section of Algiers. It was established in 1908. It enjoyed success in the 1930s but no longer exists as it was dissolved in 1962 when Algeria secured independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Moauche is regarded as one its great former players. Another is his contemporary, the late goalkeeper Abderrahmane Boubekeur, who was also a teammate on the FLN Team \u2013 Boubekeur died in France in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as a youngster Maouche\u2019s talent was undeniable \u2013 it takes a special player to be entertained as a potential replacement for the legendary Raymond Kopa at Stade de Reims in 1956 even if the weight of expectation and return of Kopa ended such hopes.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maouche was part of the FLN Team, which escaped from France to Tunis, although his path to Tunis was unusual. They played exhibition matches, including against Yugoslav and Hungarian opposition. These matches and the FLN Team itself helped to raise international support for Algeria\u2019s cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afterwards, he was loaned to French team Red Star, briefly played for Stade de Reims and finally returned to AS Saint-Eug\u00e8ne. Maouche went into coaching after hanging up his boots. Among the teams that he coached were the unfancied Esp\u00e9rance Sportive de Mostaganem, which he led to the final f the Algerian Cup, USM Algers. He was also part of the Algerian national team set up in 1981<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FLN Team was disbanded after Algeria won its fight for independence. In 1962, its job done, the FLN Team became an integral part of Algeria\u2019s and Africa\u2019s football history, an example of the very best that football can achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Born Raymond Kopaszewski in 1931, Kopa had his greatest success in French football for Stade de Reims between 1951-56. He spent the next three seasons with Real Madrid, winning the European Cup every season he spent there. He returned to Reims in 1959, remaining there until his retirement in 1968. He was one of France\u2019s great players after World War II. He played in the FIFA World Cups of 1954 and 1958 \u2013 the latter resulting in a fantastic showing, but it could have been better. France benefitted from African players, including the Moroccan born and nurtured Just Fontaine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later \u2013 the World Cup looming, the great Moroccan born and nurtured Abdelkader Larbi ben M\u2019Barek was finished \u2013 he had been injured and replaced by Kopa between the World Cups of 1954-58.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the FLN Team gave up the opportunity of playing for France in that World Cup. They would never have the chance to play in a FIFA World Cup. Kopa died in March 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (February 1st 2023) Legends It\u2019s often said, \u2018Don\u2019t meet your heroes.\u2019 Well I have and it wasn\u2019t a let-down \u2013 [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,17,14,1],"tags":[20,120,166,19,351,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3699,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3698\/revisions\/3699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}