Algerian international defender Aissa Mandi was in Algeria this week for a national team match. He left for France with the record of the most capped player in the history of the selection, and with in his luggage an Algerian product which is popular in France, the famous El Mordjene spread.
Aissa Mandi became the record holder for selections for the Algerian team on Sunday, November 17. By participating in the Greens’ match played at the Hocine Ait Ahmed stadium in Tizi-Ouzou against Liberia (5-1), in the CAN 2025 qualifiers, the 33-year-old signed his 103rd selection, now one unit higher than the record previously held by striker Islam Slimani (102). He also scored his sixth goal for the selection.
Back in France, where he plays for the Lille team, he did not fail to take with him the Algerian product which is all the rage in France, El Mordjene dough.
Despite its ban last September by the French authorities, hazelnut paste is still popular in France, and not only among members of the Algerian community.
Travelers returning from Algeria continue to smuggle in small quantities.
Aissa Mandi surprises Rémy Cabella with a pot of El Mordjene
Mandi gave it to one of his teammates at Lille, French attacking midfielder Rémy Cabella. It was he who spilled the beans in a video posted on social networks.
Opening his cupboard, the player exclaimed: “The man with 103 caps, look what he brought me! “. On the shelf, a pot of Algerian paste is clearly visible.
Cabella, 34, is a former French international, but he is far from his Algerian teammate’s record. He only has four appearances with the Blues. It was during the 2014 World Cup.
Benefiting from free advertising from certain influencers, the El Mordjene spread enjoyed phenomenal success during the summer in France.
The stores that put it on their shelves found it difficult to contain the crowds of customers who flocked to acquire it.
The product’s momentum was halted abruptly after the French Ministry of Agriculture’s decision to ban it last September, based on a European Union regulation not authorizing the importation from Algeria of products containing milk in their composition.
The Algerian product, however, has shaken up the French spread market, until then dominated by Nutella, with the emergence of many new brands imitating El Mordjene. Above all, it gained an international aura, becoming popular in several countries, in Canada, in the Gulf, until becoming untraceable in Algeria.
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