Hocine Achiou

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Hocine Achiou
Personal information
Full name	Hocine Achiou
Date of birth	April 27, 1979 (age 27)
Place of birth	Alger, Algeria
Height	1.72m
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	FC Aarau
Youth clubs
1990-96	ES Ben Aknoun
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1996-2006 2006-	USM Alger FC Aarau	? (?) 9 (1)
National team2
2003-	Algeria	25 (3)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of November 30, 2006. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of November 30, 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Hocine Achiou (born April 27, 1979 in Alger) is an Algerian footballer, who plays for Swiss club FC Aarau. He started his playing career with ES Ben Aknoun before joining the junior ranks of USM Alger. His brother Karim Achiou also plays for the club.

He was part of the Algerian team that finished second in their group in the first round of the 2004 African Nations Cup before being defeated by Morocco in the quarter-finals. Achiou had scored an important goal against Egypt in one of the group stage matches that was instrumental in helping Algeria reach the quarterfinals. Achiou also scored a goal against Zimbabwe which would be the difference in the tie-breaker against Egypt, and ultimately qualify Algeria to the quarter-finals. Achiou has 23 caps for the Algerian national team and has scored 3 goals.

Achiou was an important member of USM Alger's African Champions League run in 2003 and 2004. USM Alger made the final eight (group stage) in both those years and even made it to the semi-final in 2003 when they lost 3-2 on aggregate to eventual champions Enyimba.

He had numerous opportunities to join European clubs but the player could not agree on financial terms with the clubs. He's had trials with Premiership-sides Fulham and Portsmouth and French club CS Sedan. Hocine finally signed with Swiss club FC Aarau in the summer of 2006 for one reason.