Soccer Rangers FC and Algeria National Team Midfielder Algeria

Madjid Bougherra is a French-born Algerian footballer who currently plays for Rangers and the Algeria national team. He is a defender, who can also play as a midfielder.

He joined Rangers in July 2008 after a stint in English football with Crewe Alexandra, Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton Athletic. Before that Bougherra played his football in the France with Gueugnon.

Bougherra began his career at AS Quetigny in 1999, spending a season at the club before moving to local club AS Longvic. He stayed there for two seasons before joining French side Gueugnon in July 2002. Whilst with the then Ligue 2 side Bougherra made 49 league appearances and scored one goal, he also made a single appearance in the Coupe de la Ligue.
[edit] Crewe Alexandra

Bougherra joined English First Division club Crewe Alexandra on loan at the end of January 2006. He managed to get into the Crewe record books as his agent, Charles Collymore recommended the Algerian defender to the South Cheshire club and was given £5,000 by the club, making him the first agent to receive a fee from Crewe.

After a number of impressive performances, including a goal in the 4–1 win over Coventry City, many of the club's supporters urged then manager Dario Gradi to sign Bougherra on a permanent basis. However, in April 2006, he confirmed he would leave Crewe at the end of his loan spell after failing to help the club avoid relegation to League One.

Bougherra's performances at Crewe had attracted interest from a number of clubs in England, including some from the Premier League. He signed for another Championship club, Sheffield Wednesday, in May 2006 on a permanent deal. The fee was undisclosed, but according to then-manager Paul Sturrock it was not as much as the reported £300,000.

Bougherra made a big impact at Hillsborough after making his debut on 5 August 2006 against Preston North End, winning the Player of the Month award in only his second month at the club and captaining the team for the first time against Queens Park Rangers at home in October 2006. He also scored twice for the Owls against Ipswich and West Brom  in the first half of the 2006–07 season.

During the January 2007 transfer window, Bougherra was linked with several Premier League clubs. Sheffield Wednesday rejected a £1.3 million offer from Charlton Athletic, whilst Reading, Everton and Birmingham City were also rumoured to be interested. Eventually the Owls accepted an increased offer of £2.5m from Charlton for Bougherra, who completed his move to The Valley on 28 January 2007.

Bougherra was linked the summer of 2008 with a transfer window to several clubs and West Bromwich Albion made an offer of around £2.5 million for Bougherra which was accepted by Charlton. However, Bougherra chose not to join Albion, saying that the absence of West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace during negotiations was a major factor; Peace commented that his presence was not required for the transfer to go through.[13] He eventually joined Rangers instead, signing a four-year deal for £2.5 million on 31 July.[14]

Bougherra made his Rangers debut on 9 August 2008 in a Scottish Premier League match against Falkirk.[15] He scored his first goal on 28 September 2008 in a 3–0 win against Hibernian.[16] Bougherra was a major influence in the Rangers side and his presence in the defence gave the club stability after losing Carlos Cuéllar to Aston Villa. Bougherra was sent off in a 2–1 win over Aberdeen after a challenge with Jamie Langfield. The red card was overturned and Bougherra was made available for the title decider against Dundee United the following weekend which Rangers won 3–0, winning them the title. Bougherra ended his first season in Scottish football by winning the Scottish Cup in a 1–0 win over Falkirk. Bougherra has become a fans favourite at Rangers due to his consistent and impressive performances.

On 16 September 2009, Bougherra scored a solo goal in the 77th minute to make it 1–1 against Stuttgart in the group stage of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League, earning Rangers a vital away point. The goal came on Bougherra's European debut for the club. After playing for Algeria against Rwanda in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier Bougherra returned to Scotland two days late and was subsequently dropped for a league match away to St. Johnstone on 17 October. He was late returning from international duty again in November after being caught up in Algeria's World Cup qualification celebrations.

Despite growing up in Dijon, France, Bougherra decided to play for the country of his grandfather's birth. He first made his debut at the Under-23 level on January 2nd, 2004, in a 2004 Olympics qualifier against Ghana. He made two more appearances at the U23 level in qualifiers against Ghana and Zambia.

He made his full debut in a FIFA World Cup 2006 qualifier on 20 June 2004 against Zimbabwe. On 2 July 2007 he scored his first goal in a 2–2 draw against Cape Verde. His second goal came on 20 June 2009, a header from a free kick in the 2010 World Cup Qualifier against Zambia, which ended in a 2–0 win, putting them top of their group.

Source : Wikipedia