Billal Brahimi ( ar, بلال براهيمي; born 14 March 2000) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for club

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

. Born in France, he plays for the Algeria national team.

Club career

Middlesbrough

Brahimi is a youth product of Cergy Pontoise,

Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône () is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris, in the "new town" of Cergy-Pontoise, created in the 1960s. Population Transport Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône is served by two ...

and

Leixões The Port of Leixões ( pt, Porto de Leixões, ) is one of Portugal's major seaports, located 4 km north of the mouth of the Douro River, in Matosinhos municipality, near the city of Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city i ...

. He signed for

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

from Leixões in 2017. He made his debut for the club on 28 August 2018 in a 2–1 win over

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

in the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

, coming on as a substitute for

Muhamed Bešić Muhamed Bešić (; born 10 September 1992) is a Bosnian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Nemzeti Bajnokság I club Ferencváros and the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team. Bešić started his professional caree ...

at the

Riverside Stadium The Riverside Stadium is a football stadium in Middlesbrough, England, which has been the home of Middlesbrough since it opened in 1995. Its current capacity is 34,742, all seated, although there is provisional planning permission in place t ...

Reims

On 25 July 2019, Brahimi moved to

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

club

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...

on a free transfer, with

receiving compensation for the departure. Brahimi cited a desire to move closer to his family in France as the motivation behind the move. In August 2020, he joined

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

in the

Championnat National The Championnat de France National ( en, French National Championship), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, serves as the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, t ...

on loan for the 2020–21 season.

Angers

On 8 September 2021, Brahimi signed for Ligue 1 side

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

on a contract until June 2024.

Nice

On 28 January 2022, Brahimi joined

for a reported fee of €10 million.

International career

Born in France, Brahimi holds French and Algerian nationalities. He was called up to the Algeria national team in May 2022. He debuted with Algeria in a 2–0

2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches will be organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, the 34th edition of the international men's football champi ...

win over

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

on 4 June 2022.

Style of play

Brahimi can play anywhere along the forward line, but has appeared most frequently for Middlesbrough's

academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

sides as a left-winger.

Career statistics

Honours

Nice *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

runner-up: 2021–22

References

External links

* *
Billal Brahimi
– FFF profile {{DEFAULTSORT:Brahimi, Billal 2000 births Living people People from Beaumont-sur-Oise Algerian men's footballers Algeria men's international footballers French men's footballers France men's youth international footballers French sportspeople of Algerian descent Footballers from Val-d'Oise Men's association football forwards Ligue 1 players Championnat National players Championnat National 2 players Leixões S.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Stade de Reims players Le Mans FC players Angers SCO players OGC Nice players French expatriate men's footballers French expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England