Mathis Rayan Cherki (; ar, رايان شرقي; born 17 August 2003) is a French 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

attacking 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 ...

for Ligue 1 club

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 ...

Early life

Cherki was born on 17 August 2003 in the 3rd arrondissement of

, France. Both of Cherki's parents are of Algerian descent; his father, Fabrice, is also of Italian descent.

Club career

Cherki is a product of the youth academy of Lyon, and is considered one of their best-ever prospects. He began playing with their reserve side in the

Championnat National 2 The Championnat National 2, commonly known as National 2 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur (CFA), is a football league competition. The league serves as the fourth tier of the French football league system behind Ligue 1, Ligu ...

at the age of 15. On 7 July 2019, Cherki signed his first professional contract with

until 2022. He made his professional debut in a 0–0 Ligue 1 draw against

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

on 19 October 2019. After scoring four goals in the

2019–20 UEFA Youth League The 2019–20 UEFA Youth League was the seventh season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. Following the round of 16, the competition was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in ...

, he made his senior European debut on 27 November 2019 in a Champions League group stage game against

Zenit Zenit, meaning "zenith", may refer to: Spaceflight and rocketry * Zenit (rocket family), a Soviet family of space launch vehicles * Zenit (satellite), a type of Soviet spy satellite * Zenit sounding rocket, a Swiss rocket Sports * Zenit (sports ...

, aged 16 years and 102 days, in which he substituted

Maxwel Cornet Gnaly Albert Maxwel Cornet (born 27 September 1996) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a winger and full-back for Premier League club West Ham United and the Ivory Coast national team. He has previously played in France for Me ...

in the 74th minute of a 2–0 loss. On 4 January 2020, Cherki scored his first senior goal as a substitute in a 7–0 win over

Bourg-en-Bresse Bourg-en-Bresse (; frp, Bôrg) is the prefecture of the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Located northeast of Lyon, it is the capital of the ancient province of Bresse ( frp, Brêsse, links=no). In 2018, ...

in the

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 ...

, becoming the youngest-ever player to score a senior goal for Lyon, aged 16 years and 140 days. On 18 January, he was involved in all four of Lyon's goals in a 4–3 win over Nantes in another Coupe de France match; he scored a brace, and assisted the other two goals. On 19 August 2020, Cherki was subbed on in a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

match against Bayern Munich. In doing so, he became the youngest-ever player to feature in a UEFA Champions League semi-final. Lyon were knocked out of the competition in that match, losing by a score of 3–0 to the eventual winners. Cherki scored his first Ligue 1 goal in a 3–2 win over

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 2 May 2021. His goal secured the victory for Lyon in the final minutes of the match.

International career

Cherki is eligible to play for either France or Algeria, the latter due to his parents' origin. Cherki played for the France national under-16 team twice in 2018, both of which were friendlies against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Lyon * Coupe de la Ligue runner-up: 2019–20

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cherki, Rayan 2003 births Living people French sportspeople of Algerian descent French people of Italian descent French footballers Footballers from Lyon Association football forwards France under-21 international footballers France youth international footballers AS Saint-Priest players Olympique Lyonnais players Championnat National 2 players Ligue 1 players