2022–23 USM Alger season

On 26 June 2022, Sid Ahmed Arab has succeeded Achour Djelloul who has been imprisoned, as the new president of the club. Reda Abdouche has been appointed as the new general director, this was his second time after 2011.[7] On July 6, 2022, Jamil Benouahi extended his contract for another year to remain the head coach for the new season.[2] On July 21, in the first press conference Reda Abdouche spoke about the club's goals and the recruitment file, the first questions were about the departure of some players, Abdouche stated that he did not reach a month in his position. Where stated that during the spare period in the club, some players decided to sign up for other clubs, such as goalkeeper Alexis Guendouz and there are players that the technical staff decided not to enter in their plans, most notably Hamza Koudri who has been in the club for ten years. Abdouche stated that it is an adventure to rely on a player who suffered from an injury in Cruciate ligament that kept him out of the field for a year and at his age especially since he's at the end of his contract. As for contracts, Abdouche stated that they contacted players, including former players in the club, and although they promised to sign, they refused to answer their calls and joined other clubs.

He also said that they will not pay billions to buy player contracts and that this is not the club's policy and the rest of the clubs are free if they want to, Regarding the stadium, Abdouche said that the interests of the municipality APC and the National Authority for Technical Control of Construction CTC said that Omar Hamadi Stadium poses a danger to the supporters and it was decided to close it and they would play either at Salem Mabrouki Stadium or Omar Benrabah Stadium, especially with the closure of Stade du 5 Juillet until January due to CHAN 2022.[8]

On August 1, 2022, USM Alger delegation expected to move to Antalya, Turkey, to take a 14-day preparatory training for the start of the season. But on the day of travel coach Jamil Benouahi and some players refused to travel because of their financial dues and also because of the absence of Mustapha Bouchina and the coach's assistant on the travel list, immediately after that USM Alger administration decided to dismiss the coach from his position, In a press conference Reda Abdouche said that traveling to Turkey would have been on a private plane directly to Antalya, and that the place for preparation was very good and that the team would have played five friendly matches, and that the issue of the assistant coach first of all, has not passed his contract yet and he cannot get a ticket. Bouchina the reason is that his passport is removed from the Spanish embassy and immediately after his recovery, he will be transferred to Turkey, and that the matter is not in their hands especially since the diplomatic relations between the two countries are bad, As for the players salaries Abdouche said that the money entered the club's account on 28 July, after the director of Groupe SERPORT signed it.[9][10]

The next day, 14 players, fitness coach Kamel Boudjenane and goalkeeping coach Lounès Gaouaoui signed a document that refused to dismiss Benouahi and demanded the departure of some of those in the administration and the assistant coach Sofiane Benkhelifa who was appointed by the administration, as well as Farid Saffar a person according to the coach and supporters the cause of all the problems and does not have any position in the club.[11][12][13] The leaders of USM Alger have put an end to the functions of the technical staff of Benouahi. The coach and his peers, fitness coach Boudjenane and goalkeeper coach Gaouaoui, were dismissed from their posts after a hearing before the disciplinary board.[3]

Boualem Charef was contracted to train USM Alger replacing Jamil Benouahi and after four months Charef was dismissed from his position.

On August 4, 2022, USMA contracted with Boualem Charef to be the new coach with his staff, after canceling Turkey's training, it was replaced by another in Tunisia, where the team moved on August 9 with a delegation of 29 players, with the absence of three players, Brahim Benzaza and Samy Bouali for injury and Hamed Belem due to COVID-19.[14] On August 18, the administration of USM Alger agreed with the authorities of Dar El Beïda to receive the current season at Omar Benrabah Stadium in the presence of the supporters and start against MC El Bayadh.[15]

Last season, number of players were loaned and they are Mehdi Beneddine to French club Châteauroux, Anis Khemaissia to USM Annaba, and goalkeeper Abdelmoumen Sifour to RC Arbaâ. The last two after their return from loan were released. The first signing of the season was striker Abdesslem Bouchouareb from NC Magra for two seasons, three days after which the club contracted with the midfield attacker of JS Bordj Ménaïel Abderrahmane Bacha for two seasons.[16] The third contract was the goalkeeper Imad Benchlef also for two seasons, coming from NA Hussein Dey as a substitute for Alexis Guendouz whose contract expired.[17] On August 22, former ES Sétif captain Akram Djahnit has just signed with USM Alger for the next two seasons as the Latest recruits, Djahnit decided to submitting his case to the National Dispute Resolution Chamber which agreed with him, therefore terminating his contract.[18]

After that the club promoted six players from the reserves they are Abdelkader Belharrane, Mohamed Djenidi, Abdessamed Bounacer, Samy Bouali, Aymen Kennan and Mostafa Berkane. USM Alger then signed strikers Khaled Bousseliou from CR Belouizdad and Khalil Darfalou from ES Sétif, After the Ghanaian Kwame Opoku was loaned to Saudi club Najran SC, the foreign player’s card became empty, so the club signed a contract with the Libyan Zakaria Alharaish coming from Sutjeska Nikšić from Montenegro for two seasons.[19] As for Taher Benkhelifa who was dismissed by the coach at the time Benouahi, but with the advent of the new coach Boualem Charef he re-contracted him.[20]

On October 19, 2022, former player Tarek Hadj Adlane returned to the club, where he was appointed to head the recruitment and discovery committee, as well as responsible for the club’s media cell.[21] On November 7, USM Alger announced to the public opinion that it had settled the case of coach Denis Lavagne by paying the full financial dues he demanded through "FIFA", USMA considered that the case of Lavane is from the "past", and this file was finally closed after transferring the funds to his account within the legal deadlines set by the "FIFA", and also reassured the supporters that the team will continue to prepare for the upcoming challenges in a normal way including the assignment process.[22] On November 26, 2022, USM Alger announced that its request for domiciliation at Stade du 5 Juillet was rejected by the Office of the Olympic Complex Mohamed Boudiaf and argued its refusal by its desire to keep this enclosure closed until the kick-off of the CHAN 2022.[23]

Abdelhak Benchikha became the new coach starting from December 25, for a year and a half.

On December 25, 2022, USM Alger terminated the contract with Boualem Charef, with three months compensation, and contracted with Abdelhak Benchikha as a new coach for a year and a half, with Farid Zamiti, assistant, and Farid Belmellat, coach of the goalkeepers.[5][6] On January 3, 2023, Madjid Bougherra unveiled the list of 28 players who will represent Algeria at the 2022 African Nations Championship, including nine players from USMA, Belaïd, Loucif, Radouani, Baouche, Chita, Djahnit, Meziane, Mahious and Ait El Hadj, Two-thirds of Algeria's roster is made up of players from CR Belouizdad and USM Alger.[24][25]

In the winter transfers the club released four players, namely defender Mehdi Beneddine who was not included in the options of the coach, and Burkinabe Hamed Belem who did not recover all his capabilities after the serious injury he suffered a year ago.[26] and finally the Ghanaian Kwame Opoku who was released for free despite the great financial value that he received. He brought it at a value of 350,000 euros.[27] As for Abderrahmane Bacha was loaned to USM Khenchela for six months, a last minute transfer which materialized during the last hours of the winter transfer window.[28] In terms of recruitment, USM Alger contracted with one player, the Botswana striker Tumisang Orebonye, coming from the Moroccan club OC Khouribga.[29]

On March 13, 2023, in the late match against HB Chelghoum Laïd in the Ligue 1, USM Alger supporters faced problems entering the stadium, accusing the club administration of being the reason. In the 37th minute of the second half the supporters left the stands in protest against them, especially Sid Ahmed Arab and Reda Abdouche. After the end of the match, Abdelhak Benchikha stated that he did not understand the anger of the supporters and that he Satisfied with the performance of his players, especially since in a month they played eight matches. On March 15, USM Alger announced that Abdessamed Bounacer was invited to trials with Paris FC and FC Sochaux-Montbéliard.[30] It was a decision that the supporters did not like, after which Bounacer participated in his first match with the first team in the CAF Confederation Cup, becoming the youngest player to represent USM Alger in Africa at the age of 18. On April 11, the technical staff gave Bounacer the green light to conduct experiments in Europe.[31][32]

Groupe UNITED 37 against AS FAR in the quarter-finals of the 2022–23 CAF Confederation Cup.

In the quarter-finals of the Confederation Cup and in the first leg match against AS FAR, USMA achieved victory with two goals scored by defenders Radouani and Belaïd.[33] With the elimination from the Algerian Cup and the big difference with the Ligue 1 leaders, winning the Confederation Cup became the only goal this season, as stated by chairman of the Board of Directors Sid Ahmed Arab. In the return match and after a wonderful reception from the Moroccan team, the beginning of the match was not good as it conceded a goal in the first ten minutes, two minutes after that Radouani equalized the score, in the second half and in the first quarter AS FAR scored the second goal, but substitute Khaled Bousseliou equalized the score in the 78th minute which facilitated USM Alger's mission to qualify for the semi-finals.[34][35]

Updated to match played 17 May 2023
Source: Competitions

The league fixtures were announced on 19 July 2022.[40]

In the qualifying rounds, each tie will be played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score will be tied after the second leg, the away goals rule was applied, and if still tied, extra time will not be played, and the penalty shoot-out will be used to determine the winner (Regulations III. 13 & 14).

The draw for the group stage was held on 12 December 2022, 11:00 GMT (13:00 local time, UTC+2), at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The 16 winners of the play-off round of qualifying were be drawn into four groups of four.

The teams were seeded by their performances in the CAF competitions for the previous five seasons (CAF 5-Year Ranking points shown next to every team). Each group contained one team from each of Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3, and Pot 4 and each team was allocated to the positions in their group according to their pot.

The bracket was decided after the draw for the knockout stage (quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals), which was held on 5 April 2023, 18:30 GMT (20:30 local time, UTC+2), at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[43]

As of 17 May 2023

Appearances (Apps.) numbers are for appearances in competitive games only including sub appearances
Red card numbers denote: Numbers in parentheses represent red cards overturned for wrongful dismissal.

No.	Nat.	Player	Ligue 1				Algerian Cup				Confederation Cup				Total
Goalkeepers
1		Mohamed Lamine Zemmamouche					1	−2
16		Imad Benchlef	2	−1
25		Oussama Benbot	18	−14	2						14	−9	1
Defenders
2		Mehdi Beneddine
3		Abdelkader Belharrane	2				0+1
4		Zineddine Belaïd	18	1	1						14	3
5		Mustapha Bouchina	6+5		1		0+1				1+7		2
12		Haithem Loucif	7+2				1				8+2		1
19		Saâdi Radouani	15+2	2	2						10	2
21		Adam Alilet	13	2	3	1	1				13	2	5
22		Houari Baouche	15		3		1				5+2
27		Ibrahim Bekakchi	2+3				1
81		Abdessamed Bounacer	1								1+3		1
Midfielders
6		Oussama Chita	16+1	1	2		1				13+1		1
8		Islam Merili	10+2	2	4		1				3+7	1	1
14		Brahim Benzaza	4+5	1	1		1				8+2		4
15		Messala Merbah	4+1	1							0+2
17		Abdesslem Bouchouareb	1+2	1			0+1				0+4		1
24		Taher Benkhelifa	8+9		3	1	0+1				9+2		3
26		Akram Djahnit	12+5								6+3
72		Mohamed Ait El Hadj	11+7	1	1		1				0+6		1
Forwards
7		Ismail Belkacemi	3+7		1		1				5+7	1	2
9		Abderrahmane Bacha	3+9	1							0+4
10		Abderrahmane Meziane	15+1	3	2						8+1	3
11		Abdelkrim Zouari	6+4	1	1						6+1		1
13		Hamed Belem	2+2								1+3
13		Tumisang Orebonye	3+1		1						9+1	1	1
18		Aymen Mahious	13+3	6	1		1	1			13	3	1
20		Zakaria Alharaish	5+1		1						2+2		1
23		Khaled Bousseliou	3+2				0+1				5+4	4	3
35		Khalil Darfalou
71		Abderraouf Othmani	2+8		1		0+1	1			0+1
87		Samy Bouali	0+1
Own goals				1				0				2				3
Totals				24	31	2		2	1	0		22	30	0		48	62	2

As of 17 May 2023

Includes all competitive matches. The list is sorted alphabetically by surname when total goals are equal.

No.	Nat.	Player	Pos.	L 1	AC	C 3	TOTAL
18		Aymen Mahious	FW	6	1	3	10
10		Abderrahmane Meziane	FW	3	0	3	6
21		Adam Alilet	DF	2	0	2	4
4		Zineddine Belaïd	DF	1	0	3	4
19		Saâdi Radouani	DF	2	0	2	4
23		Khaled Bousseliou	FW	0	0	4	4
8		Islam Merili	MF	2	0	1	3
15		Messala Merbah	MF	1	0	0	1
9		Abderrahmane Bacha	FW	1	0	0	1
11		Abdelkrim Zouari	FW	1	0	0	1
6		Oussama Chita	MF	1	0	0	1
17		Abdesslem Bouchouareb	FW	1	0	0	1
72		Mohamed Ait El Hadj	FW	1	0	0	1
71		Abderraouf Othmani	FW	0	1	0	1
13		Tumisang Orebonye	FW	0	0	1	1
14		Brahim Benzaza	MF	1	0	0	1
7		Ismail Belkacemi	FW	0	0	1	1
Own Goals				1	0	2	3
Totals				24	2	22	48

As of 17 May 2023

Includes all competitive matches.