Mohamed Amoura poised to become flag-bearer for next generation of Algerian talent

It is the sprints, ball at his feet, that catch the eye, that push the speedometer’s needle so it twitches up above 36 kph. But there’s a good deal more to Mohamed Amoura, flag-bearer for Algerian football’s next generation, and a star on the rise just when his country needs one.

Besides the acceleration, he has a springy leap from his low base. Witness the most spectacular of the goals Amoura has been decorating the top flight of Belgian football with this season, a dashing overhead kick that, back in November against FC Bruges, truly established the 23-year-old as the man to build a title-chasing team around.

That team, Union Saint-Gilloise, or USG, on Thursday seek to extend their reputation as the sharpest-eyed, best-run talent-spotters in European club football’s middle tier, up against Turkish heavyweights Fenerbahce in the Uefa Conference League, with a quarter-final place at stake over the two legs, the first of them in Brussels.

An "anti-Amoura plan" is anticipated by USG’s coaching staff, such has been the impact of the striker since he joined them last summer. They suspect the Fenerbahce defence will sit a little deeper to counter those sprints; and perhaps some extra-robust marking of Amoura to examine any brittleness in his temperament.

Further along the road, USG are making post-Amoura plans, acknowledging that, as one of the game’s hottest young prospects, he may no longer be spearheading them beyond this season’s likely Belgian league title – the club have an eight-point lead at the top – the Belgian Cup final – USG’s first in more than a century – and wherever the Conference League adventure ends.

The hope is to emulate, at least, last season’s run to the quarter-finals – they lost 5-2 to Germany's