Nabil Maâloul sets record as Algeria’s highest-paid football coach

The highest-paid coaches in Algeria are benefiting from a sharp rise in remuneration this season in Ligue professionnelle 1. Nabil Maâloul’s salary as coach of CR Belouizdad has set a record as the highest ever paid to a coach in Algerian football, amid a substantial increase in players’ wages and bonuses as well.

The Tunisian coach signed a one-season contract with CR Belouizdad, on a salary of around 65,000 euros per month. The monthly cost of his expanded technical staff exceeds 100,000 euros. It includes a first assistant, fitness coaches and a video analyst, all Tunisian, as well as Algerian goalkeeper coach Hakim Sbaâ. The club’s staff is therefore the most expensive in the history of the Algerian championship.

Only one Algerian coach is among the five highest-paid. Abdelkader Amrani, at Olympique Akbou, earns the highest monthly salary among local coaches, capped at 350 million centimes. Chérif El Ouazzani Si Tahar, at MC Oran, receives around 250 million a month.

Lamine Diaye, the Senegalese coach of USM Alger, is reportedly second this season, earning close to 45,000 euros a month, compared with about 25,000 last season. The increase followed his team’s double last season, winning the Algerian Cup and the Confederation Cup.

Karim Belhocine of JS Kabylie is third, earning close to 40,000 euros a month. Khaled Ben Yahia, at MC Alger, receives nearly 30,000, and his contract is expected to be improved after his team won the league title last season. Mondher Kebaier of CS Constantine completes the group on an estimated 28,000 euros a month.

In 2024, during his previous spell in Algeria with USM Alger, Maâloul earned around 45,000 euros a month. His time there lasted no more than seven months: the club’s management dismissed him, dissatisfied with the team’s technical level under his leadership, even though his contract was for two seasons.