OGC Nice announced on Friday the departure, for the Turkish club Adana Demirspor, of Algerian international defender Youcef Atal, recently sentenced by French justice to eight months in prison, for incitement to hatred, against a backdrop of conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Atal arrived in Nice from the Belgian club KV Kortrijk, at the age of 22, in the summer of 2018 for a transfer of three million euros. He was under contract with the current 2nd in Ligue 1 until the end of the season.
Six months before the deadline, the Riviera leaders therefore did not wait to part ways with the 27-year-old right-back, sentenced in early January by the Nice criminal court to eight months in prison and a 45,000 euro fine for having shared on his Instagram account a video of a preacher calling for “a black day on the Jews”.
The player apologized after deleting this post and appealed the judgment.
Atal published this video a few days after the unprecedented attacks by Hamas against Israel on October 7, and the start of Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip, territory ruled by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Suspended by his club since this publication until the end of January, he was also suspended for seven matches by the LFP disciplinary committee. He has not reappeared in the Nice jersey since.
This winter, the Nice sports management had anticipated the departure of the Algerian international (29 caps, 2 goals), who participated in the African Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast during the month of January, by recruiting the full-back French right from Besiktas Istanbul, Valentin Rosier, 27 years old, in the form of a loan until the end of the season.
In five and a half years in Nice, where he was quickly adopted by supporters for his enthusiasm and his ability to score, Atal played 115 matches (12 goals, 8 assists).