Good Football

April 18-24, 2011

Lorrie Fair, a two time Olympic gold medalist and women’s World Cup champion ( U.S. Embassy Photo)

On April 18-24, Embassy Algiers sponsored sports envoys Lorrie Fair, Brian Gonzales, and Hisham Elkoustaf from American NGO Good Football for a soccer program in several Algerian cities. Ms. Fair, a two time Olympic gold medalist and women’s World Cup champion, was overwhelmed by the warm welcome she received from our Algerian hosts. The delegation was received by the current and former presidents of the Algerian Football Federation, and by presidents of both the men’s and women’s Algerian professional Leagues. In Algiers, the group led a soccer clinic for women inside El Harrach prison, toured the professional soccer academy, visited the headquarters of leading sports newspapers El Heddaf and Planete Sport, gave a live interview on prime time sports show “Saa Riadha,” and led a full day youth soccer tournament at the Grande Poste in the heart of downtown over the weekend with local organizations Proximus Events and Ness El Khir that was attended by dozens of young players, including a group with mental disabilities, and hundreds of interested others. The group also visited the current Algerian women’s champion team, AFAK Relizane, where they were hosted personally by the wali of Relizane. The wali also spent a friendly evening with the group to have dinner and watch the Copa del Rey championship match in Spain. From Relizane, the group visited Oran, where they led a soccer clinic at a private academy for boys and met with the men’s professional team. At the end of the visit, Good Football and Algerian NGO Ouled El Houma signed an MOU in the presence of the leaders of all the professional Algerian soccer organizations to seek future partnership opportunities, and Ms. Fair was presented a lifetime achievement award. Good Football and the Embassy are honored to have enjoyed such a fun successful week with our Algerian friends, and look forward to growing future sports programs together.