Nassim Mendil (born 27 March 1979) is a French former 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 played striker.

Club career

Born in

Rognac Rognac (; oc, Ronhac) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southern France. Located to the east of the Étang de Berre, north of Marseille Provence Airport, it is part of the Aix-Marseill ...

, France, Mendil began his career in the

SC Bastia Sporting Club Bastiais ( co, Sporting Club di Bastia, commonly referred to as SC Bastia or simply Bastia) is a Corsican association football club based in Bastia on the island of Corsica. The club plays in Ligue 2, the second tier of Football ...

academy, which he joined at the age of 15. On 22 February 1999, he made his first team debut for Bastia, coming as a second-half substitute against

Toulouse FC Toulouse Football Club is French professional football club based in Toulouse. The club was founded in 1970 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the premier division of French football. Toulouse plays its home matches at the Stadium de Toulouse lo ...

in the 25th week of

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 ...

action. It would be his only first team appearance after a contract dispute with the club. He spent one more season with the club's reserve team, scoring 24 goals, before leaving to Italy to join US Avellino in

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

. After just half a season with the club, he was signed by another Serie C1 team

Lecco Lecco (, , ; lmo, label=Lecchese, Lècch ) is a city of 48,131 inhabitants in Lombardy, northern Italy, north of Milan. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como (the branch is named ''Branch of Lecco'' / ''Ramo di Lecco''). ...

. In his second season in Italy, Mendil joined

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

side

Cosenza Cosenza (; local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosenza, which has a populati ...

, playing alongside former

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons ...

striker

Gianluigi Lentini Gianluigi Lentini (; born 27 March 1969) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a winger, usually on the left flank. He was once the world's most expensive footballer, when he moved from Torino to Silvio Berlusconi's Milan ...

and scoring 10 goals. His performances that season did not go unnoticed and he was linked with moves to a number of clubs including English clubs

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

, and Italian clubs

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

and

Reggina Reggina 1914 S.r.l., commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. Founded in 1914, they currently play in Serie B, and play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo. They are nic ...

both playing in

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

at the time. In the summer of 2002, he signed a 5-year contract with

. After signing with

, Mendil was loaned out a number of times, spending time with

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

Ascoli Ascoli may refer to: Places in Italy *Ascoli Satriano, a town and ''comune'' in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region *Province of Ascoli Piceno, a province of the Marche region **Ascoli Piceno, a city which is the seat of the province above ...

Spezia Calcio 1906 Spezia Calcio is a professional football club based in La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. Spezia Calcio was founded in 1906 by the Swiss banker Hermann Hurni (or Hurny in some documents), who played for the early Crystal Palace amateur teams in Londo ...

and

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919, commonly referred to as Salernitana, is an Italian football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recentl ...

. Since then, he has also played for

AC Ancona Associazione Calcio Ancona, commonly referred to as Ancona, was an Italian football club based in Ancona, Marche. It was founded in 2004 as the phoenix club of defunct 1905 club Unione Sportiva Anconitana, which changed its name to Ancona Calc ...

and

A.C. Pro Sesto Pro Sesto 1913 S.r.l. (formerly ''Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Nuova Pro Sesto'' and initially ''Associazione Calcio Pro Sesto'') is an association football club, based in Sesto San Giovanni, Lombardy, Italy. Pro Sesto currently plays i ...

. Mendil scored six goals for Pro Sesto in Serie C1 during the 2007–08 season. In the summer of 2008, he signed with Serie C1 team

Paganese Calcio 1926 Paganese Calcio 1926 is an Italian association football club from Pagani, Campania. It currently plays in Serie C. History The club was founded in 1926. Paganese also took part in the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1978, achieving a single victory a ...

. but in January 2009 he joined

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Associa ...

team

Eupen Eupen (, ; ; formerly ) is the capital of German-speaking Community of Belgium and is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of Liège, from the German border (Aachen), from the Dutch border (Maastricht) and from the "High Fens" na ...

. In the summer of 2010 he signed with

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

team

Bacoli Bacoli (; la, Bauli) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about west of Naples. Geography Bacoli borders the municipalities of Monte di Procida and Pozzuoli. Its territory, o ...

International career

Mendil was contacted several times by then

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

n head coach

Rabah Madjer Rabah Mustapha Madjer ( ar, رابح مصطفى ماجر; born 15 December 1958) is an Algerian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He reached stardom as a Porto player during the 1980s, being widely regarded as one of the ...

to play in the Algerian National Team in a friendly against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Mendil asked

Madjer João Victor Saraiva (born 22 January 1977), better known as Madjer, is a Portuguese retired beach soccer player. He played in the forward position, and has won numerous awards at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cups for his goalscoring abilities ...

for some time to consider the call-up and eventually declined to allow him to deal with his transfer situation. He was called up a second time for a friendly, but his club never received the invitation. He has not been called up again since.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mendil, Nassim 1979 births Living people People from Rognac French sportspeople of Algerian descent Footballers from Bouches-du-Rhône Men's association football forwards French men's footballers Ligue 1 players Serie B players Challenger Pro League players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players Cosenza Calcio 1914 players Catania FC players Calcio Lecco 1912 players Pro Sesto 1913 players US Avellino 1912 players AS Reggina 1914 players SC Bastia players Spezia Calcio players US Salernitana 1919 players AC Ancona players SS Villacidrese Calcio players K.A.S. Eupen players Algerian expatriate men's footballers Algerian men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Algerian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Algerian expatriate sportspeople in Italy