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. Fekir became a first-team regular in his second season, when he was named the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year. He made 192 appearances for ''Les Gones'', scoring 69 goals and also gaining team captaincy in 2017. Fekir made his debut for France in March 2015 and was chosen in their squad that won the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

Club career

Youth

Fekir joined the youth academy of Olympique Lyonnais at the age of 12, and two years later he was released for not being strong enough. He rejoined Vaulx-en-Velin and continued his youth career at Saint-Priest, where he was tracked by scouts from across France. At one point Lyon's local rivals

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

were very keen to sign Fekir, but he held out for Lyon to sign him again in 2011. He said "I wanted to show Lyon that they made a mistake".

Lyon

Fekir was included in the Lyon first team squad for the first time on 30 July 2013, remaining as an unused substitute in 1–0 home win over

Grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

in the Champions League third qualifying round first leg. He finally made his Lyon first team debut on 28 August 2013, replacing Yassine Benzia at half time in a 2–0 Champions League play-off round second leg away loss to

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

, which saw the club eliminated from the tournament after a 4–0 aggregate defeat. Three days later 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, playing the entire match in 2–1 away defeat to

Evian TG Evian ( , ; , stylized as evian) is a French company that bottles and commercialises mineral water from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. It produces over 2 billion plastic bottles per year. Today, Evia ...

. On 27 April 2014, against Bastia in a 4–1 Ligue 1 home win, he scored his first competitive goal (in the 23rd minute) for Lyon's first team and assisted one goal each for

Bakary Koné Bakary Koné (, born 27 April 1988) is a Burkinabé former professional footballer who played as a centre back. Club career Early career Koné played on youth side for CFTPK Abidjan and joined in 2004 to Etoile Filante where he began his pro ...

and Alexandre Lacazette. Fekir made a total of 17 appearances in all competitions in his first season (2013–14) with Lyon's first team, scoring one goal. Nabil Fekir 2015

During the 2014–15 season, he featured regularly for the first team and by 19 March 2015 he had scored 11 goals and assisted 7 in 25 2014–15 season Ligue 1 games, earning him his first international call up. On 17 May 2015, he was named as the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year and earned a spot in the Team of the Year. He finished the 2014–15 Ligue 1 season with 13 goals and 9 assists. On 29 August 2015, Fekir scored a hat-trick in a 4–0 Ligue 1 away win at

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000, On 23 February 2017, Fekir scored a hat-trick and assisted

Mouctar Diakhaby Mouctar Diakhaby (born 19 December 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back or defensive midfielder for La Liga club Valencia. Born in France, he plays for the Guinea national team. Early life Diakhaby was born in Vendô ...

's 89th-minute goal) in the 2016–17 Europa League round of 32 second-leg 7–1 home win over AZ Alkmaar to be on the scoresheet of a UEFA Europa League or UEFA Champions League match for the first time in his career, by 23 February he had scored 10 goals and provided 10 assists in all competitions for the 2016–17 season. In early August 2017, following the transfer of

Maxime Gonalons Maxime Gonalons (born 10 March 1989) is a French professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Ligue 1 club Clermont. Club career Youth career Gonalons had been with Olympique Lyonnais since the age of 10 climbing through th ...

to AS Roma a month earlier, Fekir was named captain of the club. On 5 November, he scored two goals in a 5–0 away Ligue 1 victory over fierce rivals AS Saint-Etienne. After Fekir scored his second goal in the 84th minute, he took off his shirt and brandished his name and number to the Saint-Étienne supporters, who threw objects and spilled onto the field, outraged by the gesture. Referee Clément Turpin led the players away from the field and riot police ran onto the field to restore order. The match was stopped for 40 minutes before the two teams could play out its final five minutes in a virtually empty Stade Geoffroy-Guichard. In 2017–18, Fekir was part of a prolific forward line alongside Memphis Depay and Mariano; he contributed 18 goals, the Dutchman contributing 19, with the Dominican Republic international totalling 18 for the team. In June 2018, Liverpool negotiated with Lyon for the transfer of Fekir, offering a maximum €60 million. Fekir agreed personal terms and even had his medical and did a welcome video for the fans, before the transfer collapsed due to a knee issue that appeared during the medical .

Real Betis

On 22 July 2019, Fekir signed a four-year contract with Spanish club Real Betis for an initial fee of €19.75 million and €10 million in add-ons. Lyon will receive 20% of any future sale of the player and as part of the deal, Fekir's younger brother Yassin also transferred between the two clubs. He made his La Liga debut for ''Los Verdiblancos'' on 18 August, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 defeat against Real Valladolid, and scored his first goal a week later to open a 5–2 loss against Barcelona.

International career

Fekir made just one appearance for the

France national youth football team The France national youth football team are the national under-21, under-20, under-19, under-18, under-17 and under-16 football teams of France and are controlled by the French Football Federation. The youth teams of France participate in tourna ...

. He earned one cap at the under-21 level by coming on as a substitute (in the 75th minute) for Corentin Tolisso in the

2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification play-offs The 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification play-offs constituted the second and final round of the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification tournament. The ties were contested over two-legged tie, two legs, with the fir ...

second-leg away match against Sweden on 15 October 2014; France lost the match 4–1 and 4–3 on aggregate and hence did not qualify for the final phase of the

2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak album ...

in the Czech Republic. Fekir was named in his ancestral Algeria's squad for

friendlies An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against Oman and Qatar in March 2015. However, he withdrew to take part in the French squad for friendlies against Brazil and Denmark. He made his France senior team debut on 26 March 2015 against the former at the

Stade de France The Stade de France (, ) is the national stadium of France, located just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis. Its seating capacity of 80,698 makes it the sixth-largest stadium in Europe. The stadium is used by the France national foot ...

, replacing Antoine Griezmann for the final 16 minutes of a 3–1 defeat. He scored his first goal for the France senior team on 7 June 2015, in a 3–4 home friendly defeat to Belgium. On 4 September 2015, he made his first start for the France senior team in a 1–0 away friendly win over Portugal during which he ruptured three ligaments in his right knee, putting him out of action for an estimated six months. On 25 August 2016, Fekir was called back up to the senior squad for the first time since his injury for a friendly against Italy and a

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

match against Belarus. He had to withdraw from the squad three days later, however, due to an injury. On 7 October, he made his competitive debut for France as an 83rd-minute substitute for Antoine Griezmann in the

2018 World Cup qualifying The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

4–1 win over Bulgaria at the

. He was selected in the 23-man French national squad for the

in Russia. He played the last nine minutes of the final, a 4–2 win over Croatia at the Luzhniki Stadium, in place of Olivier Giroud.

Style of play

Upon calling him for the France senior squad in March 2015, manager Didier Deschamps said that "Fekir is a player with great potential. I consider that he can bring us something different. He plays in a different role to the others. He can score and set up others to score well."

Personal life

Fekir was born to

Algerian Algerian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Algeria * Algerian people This article is about the demographic features of the population of Algeria, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, econo ...

parents, who are originally from

Menaceur Menaceur is a small town and commune in Algeria, situated about 100 km west of Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's popul ...

, a small town in Tipaza, Algeria. His father settled in France in 1992 and worked in a metallergy factory for a long time, while his mother was a social worker. He is the oldest of the family's four brothers. His brother,

Yassin Fekir Yassin Fekir (born 5 May 1997) is a French professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Midfielder#Winger, winger for Spanish club Real Balompédica Linense, on loan from Real Betis. Career Lyon On 4 July 2017, Fekir signed his f ...

, also made his professional debut at Lyon and transferred with him to Betis. Fekir is a Muslim, and gives to charity when unable to fast for

Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...

during the football season.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list France's goal tally first.''

Honours

Real Betis * Copa del Rey: 2021–22 France * FIFA World Cup:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Individual * UNFP

Young Player of the Year: 2014–15 * UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year: 2014–15, 2017–18 * UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Month: October 2017 * La Liga Team of the Season: 2021–22 Orders *

Knight of the Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

: 2018

References

External links

Profile
at the Real Betis website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fekir, Nabil 1993 births Living people French sportspeople of Algerian descent French Muslims Footballers from Lyon French footballers Association football midfielders Association football forwards Ligue 1 players FC Vaulx-en-Velin players Olympique Lyonnais players La Liga players Real Betis players France under-21 international footballers France international footballers 2018 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup-winning players French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain French expatriate sportspeople in Spain Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur