Antar Yahia

Who is Antar Yahia?

Antar Yahia is an Algerian professional footballer who currently plays for Angers SCO in Ligue 2.

Yahia is a former French youth international having earned caps for both the under-16 and under-18 youth teams for a brief period of time. Yahia was the first footballer to profit from the 2004 change in FIFA eligibility rules as he had played as a French youth international. After his switch of national allegiance he was called up to the Algeria Under-23 side, scoring on his debut in a 1–0 win against Ghana in an Olympic Games qualifier on 2 January 2004. A few days later he was called up to a training camp held in Algiers in preparation of the 2004 African Nations Cup.

At international level, Yahia played for the Algeria national team prior to his retirement from international football on 1 May 2012. He is considered to be a national hero by many Algerians, as he was the scorer of the goal that put them into their first World Cup finals since 1986, at the expense of bitter rivals Egypt. He struck in the fortieth minute of the play-off by scoring a Marco van Basten-esque goal.