Mehdi Embareck Zeffane ( ar, مهدي إمبارك زفان; born 19 May 1992) 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 ...

with Ligue 1 club Clermont. He plays primarily as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, but has also been used as a left winger or left midfielder. Born in France, he represents

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

at international level.

Club career

Born in

Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon (, literally ''Sainte-Foy near Lyon'') is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. Geography It is a suburb of the city of Lyon, located to the west of the city. It is locate ...

, a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Metropolis of Lyon The Metropolis of Lyon (french: Métropole de Lyon), also known as ("Greater Lyon"), is a French territorial collectivity located in the east-central region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is a directly elected metropolitan authority encompassing t ...

, Zeffane made his debut for the Olympique Lyonnais B side on 21 August 2010 against

RCO Agde RCO Agde () is a French football club. The club is based at the 3500-seat Stade Louis Sanguin in Agde. RCO Agde was created in 1999 from the merger of ''Racing Club Agathois'' (founded 1904) and ''Football Olympique Agathois''. As of the 2019– ...

at the Stade Louis Sanguin, in which he played the full 90 minutes, as Lyon's B team lost the match 1–0. He scored his first goal for the Lyon B team the next season on 13 August 2011 against

FC Villefranche Football Club Villefranche Beaujolais or simply Villefranche is a French association football club founded in 1927. They are based in Villefranche-sur-Saône, Rhône-Alpes and play at the Stade Armand Chouffet in town. The team played one season ...

at the Stade Armand Chouffet, when he found the net in the 54th minute in what turned out to be Lyon B's last goal in a 6–0 rout over Villefranche. In August 2015, Zeffane joined Ligue 1 club Rennes, signing a four-year contract with the club. On 22 August 2015, he scored the winning goal against his former side

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

in a 2–1 away win for Rennes. On 30 January 2020, Zeffane signed a two-year contract with

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

club Krylia Sovetov Samara. On 14 January 2022, he joined

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

club

Yeni Malatyaspor Yeni Malatyaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Malatya, Turkey. The club plays in the TFF First League, which is the second tier of football in the country. History Founded in 1986 as Malatya Belediyespor. Its prim ...

on a one-and-a-half-year contract, with an option to extend for another year. He agreed the termination of his contract in April after the club failed to play his salary and that of teammates. He made nine appearances while Yeni Malatyaspor placed last in the league. On 15 June 2022, Zeffane returned to France and signed a contract with Clermont for two years with an option for a third year.

International career

Born in France to Algerian parents, Zeffane was initially eligible to represent either

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

. In August 2014, he was named in a provisional 31-man squad by new Algeria coach

Christian Gourcuff Christian Jean Gourcuff (born 5 April 1955) is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who was most recently the manager of Ligue 1 club FC Nantes, Nantes. Club career During his ...

for a pair of

2015 Africa Cup of Nations The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, Equatorial Guinea 2015 for sponsorship reasons, was the 30th staging of the Africa Cup of Nations, the international men's football championship of Africa. It was orga ...

qualifiers against

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

and

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

. Ten days later, he was included in the final squad for the matches.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Rennes *

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 ...

: 2018–19 Algeria * Africa Cup of Nations:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zeffane, Mehdi Living people 1992 births People from Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon French sportspeople of Algerian descent Sportspeople from Lyon Metropolis Algerian footballers French footballers Association football defenders Algeria international footballers Olympique Lyonnais players Stade Rennais F.C. players PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara players Yeni Malatyaspor footballers Clermont Foot players Ligue 1 players Russian Premier League players Russian First League players Süper Lig players 2015 Africa Cup of Nations players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players Algerian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Russia Algerian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate footballers in Turkey Algerian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Footballers from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes