Rayane Bounida (born 3 March 2006) is a Belgian-Moroccan footballer who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

for the youth of Dutch team

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

. He has been touted as the next big thing since 2014, despite not having played a professional game yet. At the time of his 16th birthday, he had a contract with Nike and more than 420,000 followers on Instagram. Bounida played with the youth teams of

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

, and regularly was featured in international media as the new big talent from a very young age. On his sixteenth birthday it was announced that he would sign a professional contract with Dutch team Ajax, for a rumoured €700,000 per year. Many major European teams were interested in signing the young player, including

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

and Paris Saint-Germain. Bounida has played for the Belgium U16 national team, scoring 4 goals in 16 matches,for the Belgium U17, scoring 1 goal in 7 matches and for the belgium U18 scoring 3 goals in 4 matches.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bounida, Rayane Living people 2006 births Belgian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders R.S.C. Anderlecht players AFC Ajax players Belgian expatriate men's footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands