Albert Camus
“Algeria are indubitably among the World Cup also-rans and as such it is fitting that the philosopher who spoke more than any for a generation of outsiders could once be counted among their goalkeepers. ‘All that I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football,’ Albert Camus wrote. A British-named company called Philosophy Football report that they have sold over 5,000 souvenir shirts emblazoned with this quotation.” (Telegraph)

England’s rivals in Group C: Algeria
“TEMPERATURES so hot that “tongues hang out like Berber dogs panting in the afternoon”, pitches “bumpier than the shin of an opposing centre-forward”, a striker “who would come down on you with all his weight, into the kidneys, sandwich you against the post, smile a Franciscan smile, and say, ‘Sorry old son’.” Thus did Algeria’s most famous sportswriter, the novelist Albert Camus, describe football in his native land. And that was more than 60 years ago, before it showed its really tough hide.” (TimesOnline)