Rachid Mekhloufi(1936-2024)

Rachid Mekhloufi was a professional footballer who played a key role in AS Saint-Étienne's first league title in 1957. He left France in the spring of 1958, in the midst of the Algerian War, to help create the FLN team. He then played for Servette FC in Geneva between 1961 and 1962 before returning to Saint-Étienne from 1963 to 1968. He subsequently became player-manager at SEC Bastia until 1970 before managing the Algerian national team on several occasions in the 1970s and early 1980s. The second-highest scorer in AS Saint-Étienne's history, he is considered one of the best Algerian players to have played in the French football league. A central figure in Algerian football, he was one of the founders of the National Liberation Front (FLN) team during the occupation of Algeria, scoring 43 goals in 40 appearances. He earned four caps for the French national team between 1956 and 1957, forty caps for the FLN team between 1958 and 1962, and eleven caps for the Algerian national team between 1962 and 1968. He later became the coach of the Algerian national team.