Early life and career Bougherra was born and raised in
Dijon,
Côte-d'Or in eastern France. He began his career at AS Quetigny in 1999.
Gueugnon Bougherra joined
Gueugnon in July 2002. Whilst with the
Ligue 2 club, Bougherra made 49 league appearances and scored one goal. He also made a single appearance in the
Coupe de la Ligue.
Crewe Alexandra Bougherra joined English
Championship club
Crewe Alexandra on loan at the end of January 2006. He managed to get into the Crewe record books as his agent,
Charles Collymore recommended the Algerian defender to the South Cheshire club and was given
£5,000 by the club, making him the first agent to receive a fee from Crewe. After a number of impressive performances, including a goal in the 4–1 win over
Coventry City, many of the club's supporters urged then manager
Dario Gradi to sign Bougherra on a permanent basis. However, in April 2006, he confirmed he would leave Crewe at the end of his loan spell after failing to help the club avoid relegation to
League One.
Sheffield Wednesday in 2006 Bougherra's performances at Crewe had attracted interest from a number of clubs in England, including some from the
Premier League. He signed for another Championship club,
Sheffield Wednesday, in May 2006. The fee was undisclosed, but according to manager
Paul Sturrock it was not as much as the reported £300,000. Bougherra made a big impact at
Hillsborough after making his debut on 5 August against
Preston North End, winning the Player of the Month award in only his second month at the club and
captaining the team for the first time against
Queens Park Rangers at home in October. He also scored twice for Wednesday, against
Ipswich Town and
West Bromwich Albion in the first half of the
2006–07 season.
Charlton Athletic During the January 2007
transfer window, Bougherra was linked with several Premier League clubs. Sheffield Wednesday rejected a £1.3 million offer from
Charlton Athletic, whilst
Reading,
Everton and
Birmingham City were also rumoured to be interested. Eventually the Owls accepted an increased offer of £2.5 million from Charlton for Bougherra, who completed his move to
The Valley on 28 January 2007. Bougherra was linked with a transfer to West Brom in the summer of 2008 after a transfer fee of £2.5 million was accepted by Charlton. However, Bougherra chose not to join Albion, saying that the absence of West Brom chairman
Jeremy Peace during negotiations was a major factor; Peace commented that his presence was not required for the transfer to go through.
Rangers Bougherra joined
Rangers, signing a four-year contract for £2.5 million on 31 July 2008. He made his debut on 9 August in a
Scottish Premier League match against
Falkirk, and scored his first goal on 28 September 2008 in a 3–0 win against
Hibernian. After Rangers lost
Carlos Cuéllar to
Aston Villa, Bougherra formed a consistent partnership alongside
David Weir. Bougherra was sent off in a 2–1 win over
Aberdeen in May 2009 after a challenge with
Jamie Langfield. The red card was reduced to a yellow upon appeal after the referee changed his decision after reviewing the incident. Bougherra was available for the title decider against
Dundee United the following weekend which Rangers won 3–0, winning them the title. Bougherra ended his first season in Scottish football by winning the
Scottish Cup in a 1–0 win over Falkirk. On 12 September 2009, Bougherra was shown two yellows in the same minute against Motherwell at Fir Park, in doing so giving away a penalty. On 16 September 2009, he scored a solo goal in the 77th minute to make it 1–1 against
VfB Stuttgart in the group stage of the
2009–10 UEFA Champions League, earning Rangers a point. The goal came on Bougherra's European debut for the club. After playing for Algeria against
Rwanda in a
2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier Bougherra returned to Scotland two days late and was subsequently dropped for a league match away to
St Johnstone on 17 October. He was late returning from international duty again in November after being caught up in Algeria's World Cup qualification celebrations. On 3 May 2010, Bougherra was awarded the PFA Scotland goal of the season for his effort in the 7–1 win over Dundee United in December 2009. Bougherra missed much of the second half of the 2009–10 season through injury, but picked up his second SPL winners medal after Rangers clinched back-to-back league titles in 2010. On 14 September 2010, Bougherra was named as the
man of the match in the opening group game of the
2010–11 UEFA Champions League against
Manchester United at
Old Trafford, with the game ending 0–0. On 26 January 2011, he scored with a volley in a 2–0 win over Hibernian. In March 2011, Bougherra announced that he intended to leave Rangers at the end of the 2010–11 season after turning down a new contract. Bougherra was fined £2500 by the SFA for manhandling referee Callum Murray during an Old Firm match in 2011. On 3 August in a
2011–12 UEFA Champions League qualifier against
Malmö FF, Bougherra was shown a straight red card for elbowing an opponent, which proved to be his last game for the club.
Lekhwiya in 2011 In August 2011, Bougherra moved to Qatari club
Lekhwiya for £1.7 million. Bougherra made his league debut on 16 September in a match against
Al-Wakrah where he scored the only goal of the match, thus scoring the first goal of the 2011–12 season. In his first season with the club, he helped Lekhwiya win the
2011–12 Qatar Stars League. Bougherra left Lekhwiya in May 2014.
Aris, retirement On 9 September 2016, Bougherra signed for
Football League Greece club
Aris. Three months later, after not featuring for Aris and only appearing on the bench once, Bougherra announced his retirement from football. ==International career==