Omar Benzerga ( ar, عمر بن زرقة; born 13 March 1990) is an Algerian 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 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 ...

Club career

On 14 June 2010, Benzerga signed a four-year contract with

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 ...

side

FC Nantes Football Club de Nantes (; Gallo: ''Naunnt''), commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (), is a French professional football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 April 1943, during World War II, a ...

, joining on a free transfer from

Lille OSC Lille Olympique Sporting Club (), commonly referred to as LOSC, LOSC Lille or simply Lille, is a French professional football club based in Lille, Hauts-de-France that competes in Ligue 1, the top flight of French football. Lille has played its ...

. On 31 July 2010, Benzerga made his professional debut, starting for Nantes in their

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 ...

game against

Boulogne Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the ...

. A week later, on 9 August 2010, he made his league debut for Nantes in the opening game of the 2010–11 Ligue 2 season against

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

starting the game before being subbed off in the 67th minute. On 16 June 2012, he was fired by his club Nantes and banned for three years by the

French Football Federation The French Football Federation ( FFF; french: Fédération Française de Football) is the governing body of football in France. It also includes the overseas departments ( Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion), the over ...

International career

Benzerga played for the France U17 national team participating in the

2007 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship The UEFA European Under-17 Championship 2007 Final Tournament was held in Belgium from 2 to 13 May 2007. Top-five teams (two best places from each group plus winner of playoff between third-placed teams) qualified for the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2007 ...

where France reached the semi-finals. He started all four of France's games at the competition. In September 2009, Benzerga was called up to the Algerian U23 national team for a ten-day training camp in Beaucaire, France. He was called up again for another training camp in

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 ...

in December 2009.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benzerga, Omar 1990 births Living people People from Châtellerault Sportspeople from Vienne French sportspeople of Algerian descent Algerian footballers French footballers Footballers from Nouvelle-Aquitaine Association football midfielders Algeria under-23 international footballers France youth international footballers Ligue 2 players Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 players SO Châtellerault players Lille OSC players FC Nantes players JSM Béjaïa players Royal Excel Mouscron players JS Saoura players ASM Oran players Algerian expatriate footballers French expatriate footballers Algerian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium French expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Belgium