{"id":62775,"date":"2025-10-11T07:51:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T07:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament"},"modified":"2025-10-11T08:03:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T08:03:16","slug":"mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament","title":{"rendered":"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Riyad Mahrez ruled out extending his international career into his forties like Cristiano Ronaldo, declaring the 2026 World Cup will be his last after guiding Algeria to a fifth appearance at the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old winger, who plays for Al-Ahli \u2014 the reigning Asian champions \u2014 scored once and assisted twice in Algeria\u2019s 3-0 win over Somalia in the penultimate round of African qualifying, securing top spot in Group G and a place at next year\u2019s finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis will be my last World Cup. I\u2019m not Ronaldo (40),\u201d Mahrez told Algerian media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll give everything I have to represent Algeria in the best possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mahrez, who turns 35 in February, now has 33 goals in 106 international appearances. He praised his teammates, coach, and fans for their support, saying the team \u201cdominated from start to finish\u201d and that the focus now shifts to the Africa Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thank God for this important win,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m happy to have helped with two assists, but the most important thing is that we\u2019ve officially qualified.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Algeria have now qualified for the World Cup for the fifth time following appearances in 1982, 1986, 2010 and 2014. Their best performance came in 2014 in Brazil, where they reached the round of 16 for the first time before falling to eventual champions Germany in extra time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. Riyad Mahrez ruled out extending his international career into his forties like Cristiano Ronaldo, declaring the 2026 World Cup will be his last after guiding Algeria to a fifth appearance at the tournament. The 34-year-old winger, who plays for Al-Ahli \u2014 the reigning Asian champions \u2014 scored once and assisted twice in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":62774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-62775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Riyad Mahrez ruled out extending his international career into his forties like Cristiano Ronaldo, declaring the 2026 Wo ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Riyad Mahrez ruled out extending his international career into his forties like Cristiano Ronaldo, declaring the 2026 Wo ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-11T07:51:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-11T08:03:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1760157046.795766.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"526\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-11T07:51:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-11T08:03:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament\"},\"wordCount\":243,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1760157046.795766.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament\",\"name\":\"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1760157046.795766.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-11T07:51:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-11T08:03:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Riyad Mahrez ruled out extending his international career into his forties like Cristiano Ronaldo, declaring the 2026 Wo ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1760157046.795766.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1760157046.795766.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":526,\"caption\":\"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament - Lesotho","description":"Riyad Mahrez ruled out extending his international career into his forties like Cristiano Ronaldo, declaring the 2026 Wo ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament","og_description":"Riyad Mahrez ruled out extending his international career into his forties like Cristiano Ronaldo, declaring the 2026 Wo ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2025-10-11T07:51:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-11T08:03:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":526,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1760157046.795766.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament","datePublished":"2025-10-11T07:51:40+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-11T08:03:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament"},"wordCount":243,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1760157046.795766.jpg","keywords":["Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament","name":"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1760157046.795766.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-11T07:51:40+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-11T08:03:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Riyad Mahrez ruled out extending his international career into his forties like Cristiano Ronaldo, declaring the 2026 Wo ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1760157046.795766.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1760157046.795766.jpg","width":720,"height":526,"caption":"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/mahrez-declares-2026-world-cup-his-final-tournament#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mahrez Declares 2026 World Cup His Final Tournament"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}