Abdelaziz Ben Tifour



Abdelaziz Ben Tifour (عبدالعزيز بن طيفور; July 25, 1927 – November 19, 1970) was a professional French-Algerian footballer who played as a midfielder.

Life and career
He was a pioneer of Algerian football playing in Tunisia and France in the 40s and 50s as well as establishing the first Algerian national team with two other FLN activists featuring ten players in France's provisional World Cup squad on the eve of the finals in Sweden. One of those players was Ben Tifour, who had played for the France national team on four occasions including one appearance at the 1954 World Cup.

Born in Hussein-Dey. In the summer of 1948, he moved to Europe to play for French first division club OGC Nice, making his debut in a 1–1 draw with Red Star Paris and by the time Ben Tifour played at the 1954 FIFA World Cup in Switzerland in a 3–2 win over Mexico; he had already won two league titles and a French Cup with OGC Nice. He moved to AS Troyes-Savinienne after six seasons with Nice in 1954 and then signed for AS Monaco in 1956, which would be his last club in Europe. In total, he made 280 appearances in the French top division, scoring 62 goals. He returned to Tunis in 1958 to form the FLN Algerian national team.

When Algeria was granted independence in 1962, the 33-year-old Ben Tifour unlike Mekloufi and Ahmed Oudjani who moved back to play in Europe, returned to his homeland to take up a player-coach role at USM Alger leading them to the first Algerian championship in 1963.

Ben Tifour died at the age of 43 while he was coach at JS Kabylie during the 1970–1971 season.

Clubs

 * Espérance Sportive de Tunis (1945–1946)
 * Club Sportif de Hammam Lif (1946–1948)
 * OGC Nice (1948–1954)
 * AS Troyes-Savinienne (1954–1956)
 * AS Monaco (1956–1958)
 * FLN Equipe (1958–1962)
 * USMA, Union Sportive de la Medina d'Alger (1962–1963)