Farid El Melali ( ar, فَرِيْد الْمَلَالِيّ; born 5 May 1997) is an Algerian 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 for club Angers. Formed at

Paradou AC Paradou Athletic Club ( ar, نادي أتليتيك بارادو), known as Paradou AC or simply PAC for short, is an Algerian football club based in Algiers. The club was founded in 1994 by members of the Hydra AC junior team, the club colours ...

, he signed for Angers in 2018 where he played in

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 ...

and

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

, also being loaned to Pau in the latter part of 2022. He played three games for Algeria in 2017 and 2018.

Club career

Born in Blida, El Melali began his career with

. On 9 August 2018, he signed a four-year deal with French

side Angers SCO, having previously been close to a move to RC Lens and

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

duo

USM Alger Union Sportive de la Médina d'Alger ( ar, الإتحاد الرياضي لمدينة الجزائر); known as USM Alger or simply USMA for short, is a football club based in the inner suburbs of Algiers. The club was founded in 1937 and its co ...

and

MC Alger Mouloudia Club d'Alger ( ar, نادي مولودية الجزائر), referred to as MC Alger or MCA for short, is an Algerian football club based in Algiers. The club was founded in 1921 and its colours are red, green and white. Their home sta ...

. Only used as a substitute in his first season, he scored his first goal for the club on 24 August 2019 in the fourth minute of a 3–0 home win over FC Metz, and followed it a week later with another goal in a 2–0 victory against Dijon FCO also at the

Stade Raymond Kopa Stade Raymond Kopa is a football stadium in Angers, France. It is the home ground of Ligue 1 side Angers SCO and seats 18,752 people. It is named after Raymond Kopa Raymond Kopa (né Kopaszewski; 13 October 1931 – 3 March 2017) was a French ...

; the following 19 January he netted twice in the first half of a 4–1 win at FC Rouen in the last 32 of the Coupe de France. In May 2020, El Melali signed an extension until 2023. He netted just once in 17 games in 2020–21, when again he was mainly a substitute; this goal came in a 3–0 home win over Dijon on 9 May 2021. On 7 January 2022, El Melali joined Pau FC of

for the second half of the 2021–22 season. He scored once in 17 games, equalising in a 2–1 comeback win at home to

Amiens SC Amiens Sporting Club (; commonly referred to as Amiens SC or simply Amiens) is a French association football club based in the northern city of Amiens in the Hauts-de-France region. The club was formed in 1901 and play in Ligue 2, the second d ...

on 5 March. In June 2023, with Angers now relegated to Ligue 2, El Melali signed a new two-year contract.

International career

El Melali made his debut for Algeria on 18 August 2017 in a 1–1 draw with Libya in

2018 African Nations Championship qualification The 2018 African Nations Championship qualification was a men's football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2018 African Nations Championship. Only national team players who were playing in their country's own domestic lea ...

, as a 75th-minute substitute for Mohamed Madani.

Personal life

In May 2020, El Melali was seen masturbating in the courtyard of his block of flats while looking at a woman who lived on the ground floor. He was arrested and charged by French police with public masturbation. He later apologized for his behavior, as he wrote: "In the past few days, I've lived through very hard and stressful period, whether mentally or physically, I've been criticized and toughly judged. I understand how hard it was for the people who have received the news, because no one can forgive this kind of behavior". In July 2020, El Melali was arrested for the same offence, the second in three months. In October, he was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months, fined €2,000 and made to pay compensation of €1,600 and €2,300 to two victims.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Melali, Farid Living people 1997 births Sportspeople from Blida Men's association football forwards Algeria men's international footballers Algeria men's A' international footballers Algeria men's youth international footballers Algeria men's under-23 international footballers Algerian men's footballers Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 players Algerian Ligue 2 players Ligue 1 players Paradou AC players Angers SCO players Pau FC players Algerian expatriate men's footballers Algerian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in France People convicted of sex crimes Sportspeople convicted of crimes 21st-century Algerian people