Habib Bellaïd

Early life

Bellaïd began his career playing for his local side Red Star Saint-Ouen. During his time as a youth player there, he was teammates with Abou Diaby. In 1999, he was selected to attend the Clairefontaine academy. There, he trained alongside Diaby, Hatem Ben Arfa, and Ricardo Faty and often spent the week training there, while playing with Red Star on the weekends. Following his stint at Clairefontaine, he joined RC Strasbourg.

Strasbourg

Bellaïd joined Strasbourg in 2002 and quickly asserted himself into the youth academy. He was a part of the Strasbourg youth squad that made it to the finals of the Coupe Gambardella in 2003, before losing to 4–1 to Rennes. He made his professional debut on 9 November 2004 in a Coupe de la Ligue match against Troyes AC starting the match in the left back position. Strasbourg won the match 3–1 and eventually went on to win the cup. That league cup appearance was his only appearance that season. Bellaïd was subsequently promoted to the senior squad for the 2005–06 season. He proceeded to make his Ligue 1 debut on 17 September 2005 in a match against RC Lens coming on as a substitute in the 70th minute. The match ended in a 1–1 draw. He appeared consistently as a starter for the rest of the season. He scored his first professional goal and only goal that season in the UEFA Cup against Roma at the Stadio Olimpico. Unfortunately for Bellaïd, due to primarily focusing on their European aspirations, Strasbourg finished…

Bellaïd has been a France youth international since childhood receiving caps with all of France's youth teams beginning with the U-15s all the way to the U-21s. He was also eligible to play for Tunisia and Algeria, subject to FIFA approval. On 4 May 2010, Bellaïd was called up to the Algeria preliminary World Cup 2010 squad. He made his debut on 28 May 2010 as a starter in a friendly against the Republic of Ireland, but did not play in the tournament.

Bellaïd was born in Bobigny, France, to a Tunisian father and an Algerian mother. He holds French and Algerian nationalities.