Photo Gallery

Algeria have recently emerged as one of the best teams in Africa, with their fantastic success over the last two years helped by their attractive and modern style of play.

The Algerian team is a result of more then seven years of work and development, with most of players come from the cities of Bejaia and Chlef where a lot of work was done during the 1990s to find players.

In 2000 most of these players started their international careers at the girls' African Championship where they surprised everyone with their talent by winning the title. A year later the same girls won the junior title, beating everyone in straight sets, before playing in two World Championships.

The Algerian Federation's belief in the team saw them put together a new technical staff in 2006 and provide finance and materials to help prepare the team for the African Games and the continental Olympic qualifiers.

The squad began to work more than three weeks a month, attended international camps and played strong teams such as Cuba and Italy to help them to raise the level of their game.

In July 2006 Algeria was ready for the African Games, where they won gold. A month after that Algeria lost the African Championship in Kenya but played with six new players while resting their stars. But during the Olympic qualifier Algeria bounced back to claim an Olympic ticket.

Some of the Algerian are now playing in professional leagues in Europe, which is helping develop their skills further. The Algerians play with a modern style adapted to their physical and technical skills. Their top players include Lydia Oulmou and Faiza Tsabet, who both play for Istres Volleball in France.

Ikhedji Mouloud became Head Coach of Algeria in 2006 after a stellar career as a player and coach in the North African nation.

Indeed, Mouloud is one of the most famous Algerian coaches. Born in Bejaia, a hotbed for Volleyball in Algeria, he was a Volleyball player during the 1980s before joining the University of Sport in Algiers where he graduated. He started coaching in 1989 at the MBB Volleyball club in Bejaia, winning a lot of titles in the younger age groups.

In 1996 he was called up as a second coach of the Algerian Men's National Team and he went with the team to the FIVB World Championship in Japan in 1998, while also winning the Arabic Championship twice. Mouloud then coached one of the most famous Men's Clubs in Algeria, El Kseur of Bejaia.

In March 2006 he was named as Head Coach of the Women's National Team and he started working with his technical staff composed by Boussaid Salah and Redjdal Mohand.

Mouloud led the team to gold at the African Games in July 2007 and a month after that the team won silver at the African Championship. Then in January 2008 at the continental Olympic qualifier his team swept all the opposition in straight sets to clinch a place in Beijing.
 
"I'm proud of the job that we did for the last two years and we are expecting that my team will give a nice vision of its game during the Olympic Games no matter if we are going to play the best teams in the world. Of course we are going to learn and but we are also going to fight," says Mouloud.