Sid Ali «Alilou» Yahia-Chérif, (born January 4, 1985, in

Hydra Hydra generally refers to: * Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed serpent in Greek mythology * ''Hydra'' (genus), a genus of simple freshwater animals belonging to the phylum Cnidaria Hydra or The Hydra may also refer to: Astronomy * Hydra (constel ...

) is an Algerian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who is currently playing for

RC Kouba Raed Chabab Kouba (), known as RC Kouba or simply RCK for short, is an Algerian football club based in Kouba, a district of Algiers. The club was founded in 1945 and its colours are green and white. Their home stadium, Mohamed Benhaddad Stadi ...

Club career

Growing up in

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

, Yahia-Chérif began playing on the streets and in neighborhood tournaments. He played briefly for two local sides: ''ES Kouba'' and ''ES Ben Aknoun''. In 2003, at age 18, he signed with the

junior team, quickly making his mark at the club, and just two years later, he was promoted to the senior side. In the 2007/2008 season, Yahia-Chérif helped the club win promotion to the top flight. However, they would be relegated the following season with Yahia-Chérif leaving the club at the end of the 2008/2009 season.

JS Kabylie

In the summer of 2009, he was linked with a move to a number of French clubs including AS Monaco, FC Metz, FC Istres and Stade Reims. However, Yahia-Chérif chose to stay close to home, signing a three-year contract with JS Kabylie. In his first season with the club, he made 31 league appearances, scoring 10 goals, as JS Kabylie finished third in the domestic league. He also played a role in the teams run to the semi-finals of the

2010 CAF Champions League The 2010 CAF Champions League was the 46th edition of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the 14th edition under the current CAF Champions League format. The winner, TP Mazembe q ...

. In the first round of the competition, he scored the only goal in the return leg against Tunisian side

Club Africain Club Africain ( ar, النادي الإفريقي) is a Tunisian football club based in Tunis that competes in the Tunisian Championship. It fields several sports teams, including football, handball, basketball, swimming and volleyball. The foot ...

as JS Kabylie won 1-0 and advanced 2-1 on aggregate. In his second season, he made just 10 league appearances and failed to find the back of the net. However, on May 1, 2011, he started in the 2011 Algerian Cup Final, as JS Kabylie went on to win 1-0 against USM El Harrach, to win its first

Algerian Cup The Algerian Cup ( ar, كأس الجزائر) also known the Republic Cup ( ar, كأس الجمهورية), is a football competition in Algeria, pitting regional teams against each other. It was established in October 1962, three months after in ...

since 1994.

FC Istres

On 6 July 2011, Yahia-Chérif signed a three-year contract with French

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

side Istres.

International career

On April 17, 2008, he was called up to the Algerian A' National Team for a qualifier against Morocco for the

2009 African Championship of Nations The 2009 African Nations Championship was the first edition of the African Nations Championship in football. The tournament took place in Ivory Coast from 22 February to 8 March 2009. Thirty countries attempted to qualify for the tournament. Qu ...

. He was the only player in the squad playing in the second division.Sélection féminine 2006
/ref> He has also been capped for Algeria at the Under-23 level.

Honours

* Won the

once with JS Kabylie in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yahia-Cherif, Sid Ali 1985 births Algerian footballers Living people Kabyle people Footballers from Algiers Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 players Ligue 2 players Algeria men's A' international footballers RC Kouba players FC Istres players JS Kabylie players MC Alger players JS Saoura players Expatriate footballers in France Algeria men's under-23 international footballers 2011 African Nations Championship players Algerian expatriate footballers Men's association football forwards 21st-century Algerian people