Soccer player punked by fake kidnap, terrorist-style execution for ‘hilarious’ Algerian TV prank (VIDEO)

In what has to be the cruelest prank ever devised, a professional soccer player was kidnapped, driven to the desert and threatened with execution — terrorist-style — all for the sake of a "hilarious" TV prank.

Algeria international Madjid Bougherra, who played for English teams Charlton Athletic and the Rangers, was subjected to the terrifying ordeal for an Algerian hidden camera show.

He was relaxing in a cafe with a friend when actors posing as armed extremists burst in and forced him to the ground at gunpoint. 

All the customers are then forced into a cupboard, where Bougherra eases their panic while appearing calm throughout. The captives are later blindfolded and driven to a remote location in the desert.

They are then made to kneel in the sand presumably fearing they will shot or beheaded before the stunt is finally revealed.

With a combination of elation and desire for revenge, the clip ends with Bougherra chasing his friend, who had been in on the prank, around the desert.

But, considering the likelihood of something like that actually happening in that region of the world, the friend was lucky Bougherra didn't take more drastic actions.

Ex-Rangers defender Madjid Bougherra kidnapped by armed terrorists in "hilarious" TV prank http://t.co/dVPsPdcgqM pic.twitter.com/1YVQnVGu6C

— Telegraph Football (@TeleFootball) June 23, 2015

Bougherra currently plays for Al-Fujairah in the UAE Arabian Gulf League. 

The prank was filmed for the TV show Camera Cache in Algeria, which remains on high alert over the continual threat posed by terrorist and criminal networks.

It's incredible considering that thirty seven Western hostages were executed at a gas plant in Algeria after being taken hostage by Al Qaeda in January 2013. The hostages were shown kneeling in the desert with their arms in the air while the group's leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar issued a video making a series of demands.

Sadly, that's reality TV.