Sami Tlemcani ( ar, سامي التلمساني; born 21 July 2004) 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 le ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for Greek Super League 2 club

AEK Athens B A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelf ...

. Born in France, he represented Morocco at youth international level before committing to represent

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

in February 2023.

Club career

Early life

Born in

Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne Saint-Maurice () is a Communes of France, commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. The insane asylum Charenton (asylum), Charenton was located in Saint-Maurice; it is now a psy ...

, France to an Algerian father and Moroccan mother, Tlemcani played for Créteil-Lusitanos before joining

Paris FC Paris Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris FC or simply PFC, is a French professional football club based in Paris, that competes in the Ligue 2, the second tier of French football. Paris FC play their home matches at the Stade Ch ...

. He spent two years with Paris FC, training with the first team at only 15 years old.

Chelsea

In October 2020, he joined 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 Foo ...

side

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

. In February 2022, Tlemcani was loaned to

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

side

Merstham Merstham is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It lies 25 miles south of Charing Cross and 2 miles south of the Greater London border. Part of the North Downs Way runs along the northern boundary of the town. Mers ...

on a short-term deal. He went on to make five appearances in the league. He extended his deal with Chelsea in August 2022, signing until 2025. On 1 July 2023, Tlemcani departed Chelsea by mutual consent.

AEK Athens

On 27 July 2023, Tlemcani joined Greek Super League 2 club

International career

Tlemcani is eligible to represent France through birth, and both Algeria and Morocco through his parents. He was called up to the French under-16 team in November 2019. Ahead of the

2021 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations The 2021 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, known for sponsorship purposes as the 2021 Total U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, was planned to be the 14th edition (19th if editions of the tournament without hosts are included) of the biennial African interna ...

, which was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

in host country Morocco, Tlemcani pledged his international future to Morocco, stating on his

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page that he had decided to represent them instead of

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

. This choice was strengthened further when, in September 2021, he received a surprise call up to the Morocco senior set up ahead of 2022 World Cup qualification games. Despite Tlemcani initially expressing his pride at representing Morocco, his father said in an interview in September 2022 that he had a desire to represent Algeria at international level, but had yet to hear from the

Algerian Football Federation The Algerian Football Federation (AFF); ( ar, الاتحادية الجزائرية لكرة القدم) is the governing body of football in Algeria. It was formed in 1962 and was based in the capital Algiers. It has jurisdiction on the Algerian ...

. He has since gone on to represent Morocco at under-20 level. In February 2023, Tlemcani chose to represent Algeria.

Career statistics

Club

;Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tlemcani, Sami 2004 births Living people Algerian men's footballers French men's footballers Moroccan men's footballers Morocco men's youth international footballers Algerian people of Moroccan descent Moroccan people of Algerian descent French sportspeople of Moroccan descent French sportspeople of Algerian descent Men's association football goalkeepers Isthmian League players US Créteil-Lusitanos players Paris FC players Chelsea F.C. players Merstham F.C. players Moroccan expatriate men's footballers French expatriate men's footballers Algerian expatriate sportspeople in England French expatriate sportspeople in England Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England