Antar Yahia

He struck in the 40th minute of the play-off by scoring a Marco van Basten-esque goal.

Anther Yahia (عنتر يحيى; born 21 March 1982) is a retired professional footballer who played as a centre-back.

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.

In 1985, Yahia's parents decided to move the family back to Algeria as they found it difficult to cope with life in France.

They lived in Algeria briefly before again returning to France.

Yahia is married to Karima Ziani who is the twin sister of fellow French-Algerian football player Karim Ziani.

He was introduced to the game at the age of 10, when he decided to visit his elder brothers who were playing football.

He fell in love with the game and joined the junior team of Racing Club de Belfort, a club in his neighbourhood.

He later joined the FC Sochaux-Montbéliard training centre three years later.

He is Muslim and observes fasting during the Islamic month of Ramadan he speaks Arabic, French, German, Italian, English and Spanish.

Yahia began playing football for the Racing Club de Belfort youth team before joining the Sochaux youth academy at the age of fourteen.

He is considered 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.

However, in 2000, at the age of eighteen Yahia wanted to sign a professional contract, but his wish was denied by the then Sochaux leaders.

He decided to leave Sochaux opting to join Internazionale's youth academy.

Yahia started his professional career when he was loaned out by Internazionale in 2001 to Corsican side SC Bastia.

He made his senior debut on 16 January 2002 against Lyon, replacing Cédric Uras in the 43rd minute.

After four successful years on Corsica, Yahia was transferred to OGC Nice.

He 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.

He participated in two continental tournaments 2004 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, the latter in which Algeria finished fourth, and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Overall, he participated in 53 official games for Algeria, in which he scored six goals.

Yahia signed a four-year contract in the summer of 2005 with OGC Nice after the relegation of SC Bastia.

In the first season he played most of the games but at the end he became a substitute.

So he decided to move on to another club.

In 2007 English club Leeds United and German side VfL Bochum were interested in Yahia.

He did some training exercises at both clubs and both wanted to buy him.

Yahia decided to move to the club from the Bundesliga.

On 30 January 2007, he played his first Bundesliga match for VfL Bochum against Bayern Munich In a short period he became an important player at the club and had a safe place in the central defense.

When the loan contract was expired VfL Bochum signed Yahia for €800,000.

When VfL Bochum were relegated at the end of the 2009–10 season, Yahia revealed that he would like to leave the club during the summer transfer window, following the World Cup declaring "Indeed, I have decided to leave Bochum" as "I can't play at a lower level".

He mentioned that he was aware of interest from clubs in France, but would make his decision after the World Cup.

He captained the team during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, holding the position from June 2010 to May 2012.

Yahia was born in Mulhouse, France, to Fatima Zohra and Boussaha Yahia, a welder by profession, both of Algerian, Chaoui descent.

His parents emigrated to Alsace from the village of Sedrata in the Aurès region in eastern Algeria.

He agreed a contract until 2011 with the club and earned on 4 January 2010 the Algerian Player of the Year 2009 award.

In January 2010 in Luanda, Angola, Yahia was presented the award of Arab player of the Year 2009 after winning a poll created by the Arab television channel MBC.

One million people participated in the poll, Yahia gained the majority of the votes with 48%.

On 13 October 2010, Yahia agreed a new contract with VfL Bochum that would keep him at the club until 30 June 2014.

At international level, Yahia played for the Algeria national team prior to his retirement from international football on 1 May 2012.