Houssem-Eddine Chaâbane Aouar (born 30 June 1998) is a 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 as a
midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
for
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
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
.
Early life
Houssem-Eddine Chaâbane Aouar was born on 30 June 1998 in
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Club career
Aouar joined the
Olympique Lyonnais Academy in 2009 at the age of 11.
He signed a three-year professional contract at
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
in July 2016. He made his first team debut in on 16 February 2017 in a 1–4 away win over
AZ Alkmaar
Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known as AZ Alkmaar or simply AZ (), is a Dutch professional football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest professional football league in the Netherlands, and ho ...
in the first-leg match of the round of 32 of the knockout phase of the
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...
, replacing
Sergi Darder after 84 minutes.
Aouar scored his first goal for Lyon's first team a week later in the second-leg match against AZ Alkmaar
at
Parc Olympique Lyonnais
Parc Olympique Lyonnais, known for sponsorship reasons as Groupama Stadium, is a 59,186-seat stadium in Décines-Charpieu, in the Lyon Metropolis. The home of French football club Olympique Lyonnais, it replaced their previous stadium, Stade de ...
, which Lyon won 7–1.
He made his
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 ...
debut by starting in the away match against
Bastia
Bastia (, , , ; co, Bastìa ) is a commune in the department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It also has the second-highest population of any commune on the is ...
on 16 April 2017, but the match was abandoned at half-time with the score at 0–0. A win was given to Lyon three weeks later. He was nominated for the Golden Boy award in July 2018.
At the beginning of the 2017–18 season, despite having played only five competitive matches for Lyon's first team since he joined the club, Aouar was given the symbolic number 8 (having previously been worn by club legend
Juninho) left free when
Corentin Tolisso
Corentin Tolisso (born 3 August 1994) is a French professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Ligue 1 club Lyon and the France national team.
A graduate of the Lyon academy, Tolisso made his professional debut for the club i ...
left the club for
Bayern Munich
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...
in June 2017.
On 11 December 2019, Aouar scored a goal against
RB Leipzig
RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig, and colloquially referred to as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company Red Bu ...
in a
Champions League group stage match
helping Lyon to secure their way into the Champions League round of 16. His side later upset both
Juventus
Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...
and
Manchester City
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...
to reach the semi-finals, where they were beaten by
Bayern Munich
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...
.
International career
Aouar is eligible to represent both France and Algeria at international level. In January 2019, Algeria manager
Djamel Belmadi
Djamel Belmadi ( ar, جمال بلماضي; born 25 March 1976) is a professional football coach and former player who manages the Algeria national team.
As a player he was midfielder who had spells in Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain, Marse ...
confirmed that he would visit Aouar and present the vision and project of the Desert Foxes in hope of convincing him to play in the upcoming
Africa Cup of Nations
The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...
.
France
In 2014, Aouar was called up to the
France under-17 national team, but only played one game. In 2019, he was a starter throughout
the UEFA European Under-21 Championship for the
France under-21 national team, eventually being eliminated by
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
in the semi-finals.
In November 2019, Aouar was called up to the
France national team, but was unable to join the team due to suffering an injury. He was not replaced in the squad. On 26 August 2020, Aouar received his first call-up for France to prepare for
2020–21 UEFA Nations League
The 2020–21 UEFA Nations League was the second season of the UEFA Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. The competition was held from Septembe ...
matches against
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
and
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
in early September. However, on 27 August, he tested positive for
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
during a regular test carried out by Lyon, amid its
pandemic in France; he was put into isolation for a fortnight and had to skip training for at least 10 to 15 days. Therefore, France decided to replace him with
Nabil Fekir
Nabil Fekir (born 18 July 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for La Liga club Real Betis and the France national team.
An academy graduate of Lyon, he was promoted to the senior squad in July 2013. F ...
. Aouar eventually made his France debut on 7 October 2020 in a 7–1
friendly win over
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
.
Algeria
After years of back and forth rumours on his nationality change, on January 6th, 2023, Aouar changed international allegiance to his parent's home nation of
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
. He is yet to get a call-up to the Algerian national team.
Style of play
Aouar is a versatile
attacking midfielder
A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...
who can play anywhere in midfield, and has been praised for his excellent technical ability and calmness with the ball at his feet.
Personal life
Aouar is of Algerian descent. He holds
Juninho and
Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most ...
as role models.
Career statistics
Club
International
Honours
Lyon
*
Coupe de la Ligue
The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Football in France, French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was est ...
runner-up:
2019–20
Individual
*
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
Squad of the Season:
2019–20
References
External links
OL profile*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aouar, Houssem
1998 births
Living people
Footballers from Lyon
French footballers
Association football midfielders
Olympique Lyonnais players
Ligue 1 players
France youth international footballers
France under-21 international footballers
France international footballers
French sportspeople of Algerian descent