Hamer Bouazza

Watford

In 2003, at the age of 16, Bouazza moved to England having won a scholarship at Watford following a trial. He made his first team debut as an 88th-minute substitute on 7 February 2004 in a 2–2 with Sunderland at Vicarage Road. A week later, he scored on his full debut, a 2–0 home win over Preston North End. He made a total of nine appearances in the 2003–04 season. The following season, he made 28 league and eight cup appearances, scoring three goals. During the 2005–06 season, Bouazza was overshadowed by Darius Henderson, Marlon King, and Ashley Young and missed a lengthy spell with a broken metatarsal but still tallied three goals in nineteen games, one of which was the fourth in Watford's 4–1 win over Championship runners-up Sheffield United. On 6 October 2005, Bouazza was loaned out to League One club Swindon Town, initially for one month, but later extended to the end of the year. He scored three goals in 15 games for Swindon. Bouazza broke his metatarsal during a Watford home game against Derby County on 4 March 2006, and had the bone pinned in an operation. On 21 May 2006, he played in Watford's 3–0 win over Leeds United in the Championship play-off final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, coming on as a 72nd-minute substitute. Throughout the 2006–07 season, with Watford in the Premier League, Bouazza started most league games, principally as a left-sided winger, scoring five goals and winning the club's "Young Player of the Season award".

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Early career

Although born in France, Bouazza was approached by the Algerian Football Federation, to play at national level for them. Bouazza accepted, explaining later: "I grew up in Paris, yes, but I've always known my nationality. I am Algerian, just as my father and mother are. My grandmother lives just outside Algiers, and I have many cousins there." Bouazza made his debut for Algeria against Libya on 7 February 2007 and scored his first goal in a 3–2 victory over Mali on 20 November 2007.

2010 World Cup and 2010 Africa Cup of Nations qualification

Bouazza played in Algeria's opening second round qualification game for the 2010 World Cup, a 1–0 loss to Senegal on 31 May 2008 at the Stade Leopold Senghor, Dakar, Senegal, coming on as a second-half substitute. However, he didn't make any further appearances as Algeria won group Six and progressed to the third round. He then played in the opening third-round game, an away 0–0 draw with Rwanda on 28 March 2009, again as a substitute. He continued to be used as a second-half substitute in Algeria's next three qualifying games, a 3–1 win over Egypt on 7 June, a 2–0 away win over Zambia on 20 June and a 1–0 home win over Zambia on 6 September, a result which booked Algeria a place at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations. On 13 November, as the Algerian squad arrived in Cairo for their vital World Cup qualifier against Egypt the following day, their team bus was attacked by stone-throwers. Three players were injured…

Hamer Bouazza was born on 22 February 1985 in Évry, Essonne in France. He grew up in Évry with his parents, two brothers and two sisters. In October 2005, speaking about his early life, Bouazza said: "Sometimes I didn't go to school because all that I wanted was to play football. It was football, football. I started playing at nine and when I was 15 I got a chance with Auxerre. It did not go well and after a year I returned to Évry."

Bouazza is a practising Muslim. He observes ramadan each year, fasting during daylight hours for a month. He has admitted fasting can be hard, but said it was part of his faith. "I'm proud to be a Muslim. I'm not going to say (combining fasting and football) is easy. Ramadan is hard, and I try to do my best every time. You know God is there to help us, we believe in Him. We just need to pray and believe in Him."