Rachid Ghezzal ( ar, رشيد غزال; born 9 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 ...

who plays as a winger for

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 Beşiktaş and the Algeria national team. He began his career at

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 ...

, where he made his debut in October 2012. He played 119 games and scored 13 goals for them across all competitions. In August 2017, he moved to

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

on a free transfer. Born in France, Ghezzal represented France at under-20 level. He made his senior debut for his ancestral

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

in 2015 and was part of their squad at the

2017 Africa Cup of Nations The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2017 or CAN 2017), known as the Total 2017 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champions ...

Club career

Lyon

Born in

Décines-Charpieu Décines-Charpieu (; frp, Dessines) is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. The name of the city is often shortened and simply called Décines. Geography Décines is located near Grand Large res ...

, Metropolitan Lyon, in July 2010 Ghezzal signed a five-year ''élite'' contract with

. After featuring with the club's reserve team in the Championnat de France Amateur for two consecutive seasons, ahead of the 2012–13 season, he was promoted to the senior team by manager

Rémi Garde Rémi Garde (, born 3 April 1966) is a French former professional footballer. He was most recently the head coach of Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer. He played as a defender and defensive midfielder, spending most of his career with h ...

and assigned the number 31 shirt. Ghezzal made his senior team debut on 4 October 2012 in a

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. ...

group stage away match against Israeli club Ironi Kiryat Shmona; he started the match as Lyon won the contest 4–3. In the 2013–14 season, Ghezzal suffered a back injury for the first six months of Lyon's campaign, which saw him out of action until 10 January 2014, missing 32 of Lyon's games in the process. He then returned to the squad but did not make any appearances for Lyon for the rest of the season; either being not named in match day squads or being named on the bench. Since January 2016, he had been playing regularly. He finished the 2015–16 season with 8 goals and 8 assists in 29 Ligue 1 matches. In June 2017, Lyon announced that Ghezzal's contract would not be renewed.

Monaco

On 7 August 2017, Ghezzal joined fellow Ligue 1 team

by signing a four-year contract that would run until June 2021. It was reported that Monaco would pay him a signing bonus of €3 million and a monthly salary of about €180,000. As his Lyon contract had expired on 30 June 2017, he arrived on a free transfer.

Leicester City

On 5 August 2018, Ghezzal signed for English

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

club

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

as a direct replacement for outgoing fellow countryman Riyad Mahrez, signing a four-year deal. In his first start for the club, he scored his first Leicester goal, a long range strike from outside the box, in a 4–0 win over

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed in ...

Fiorentina (loan)

On 2 September 2019, Ghezzal was loaned to Italian

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 Cop ...

side ACF Fiorentina on a season-long deal that included an option to buy.

Beşiktaş (loan)

On 5 September 2020, Ghezzal joined Turkish

club Beşiktaş on a season-long loan. On 15 May 2021, he scored a penalty in a 2–1 away win over Göztepe, to secure the

2020–21 Süper Lig The 2020–21 Süper Lig, officially called the Süper Lig 2020–21 season, was the 63rd season of the Süper Lig, the highest tier football league of Turkey. Teams A total of 21 teams contested the league, including eighteen sides from the ...

title for Beşiktaş.

Beşiktaş

On 12 August 2021, Beşiktaş announced the signing of Ghezzal from

on a three-year deal.

International career

At international senior level, Ghezzal was eligible to represent both

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 ...

and

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

and had stated his preference is to represent the latter nation. In 2013, he received the call from France U20 to compete in the

Toulon Tournament The Toulon Tournament (officially the Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) is a football (training match) tournament, which traditionally features invited national teams composed of youth players from U-17 to U-23 level. ...

. However, Ghezzal later chose to play for Algeria, scoring his first goal in March 2016 against Ethiopia.

Philanthropy

On 9 December 2018, Ghezzal appeared on a Sport dans la Ville digital philanthropy card. The digital philanthropy card featured the French non-profit, serving disadvantaged kids through sports and job training. It was his tribute to the organization of which he was part until the age of 12 years. During a meeting on 31 December 2013 with young members of Sport dans la Ville, Rachid explained the time he spent with Sport dans la Ville allowed him to reach the status of professional player.

Personal life

He's the younger brother of Algerian international

Abdelkader Ghezzal Abdelkader Mohamed Ghezzal ( ar, عبد القادر غزال; born 5 December 1984) is a former professional footballer who played as a forward or midfield playmaker. Born in France, he made 28 appearances for the Algeria national team scorin ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Algeria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ghezzal goal''.

Honours

;Lyon Reserves * Championnat de France Amateur:

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, 2011–12 ;Beşiktaş *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Kupası'') is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupas� ...

Turkish Super Cup The Turkish Super Cup ( Turkish: ''TFF Süper Kupa''), as it is currently known, is the annual super cup football match contested between the previous season's Süper Lig champions and the Turkish Cup winners in Turkey. It was originally known ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Individual *

Best Foreign Player:

Top Assist Provider:

(17 assists) *

Right Winger of the Year: 2021–22

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghezzal, Rachid 1992 births Living people People from Décines-Charpieu Citizens of Algeria through descent Algerian footballers Algeria international footballers French footballers France youth international footballers Association football wingers Olympique Lyonnais players AS Monaco FC players Leicester City F.C. players ACF Fiorentina players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Ligue 1 players Premier League players Serie A players Süper Lig players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players Algerian expatriate footballers French expatriate footballers Algerian expatriate sportspeople in England French expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Algerian expatriate sportspeople in Italy French expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy French expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Algerian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Turkey French sportspeople of Algerian descent Sportspeople from Lyon Metropolis Footballers from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes