Yassine Meriah ( ar, ياسين مرياح; born 2 July 1993) is a Tunisian 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 defender for

Espérance de Tunis :''See also Esperance (disambiguation)'' Espérance is one of the two French words that can be translated into "hope", the other being "espoir". Whereas the latter is closer to the idea of "dream" or "fantasy" and corresponds to most of the common ...

and the Tunisia national team.

Club career

Mariah was formed in AS Ariana, the team that was active in the

Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 2 The Ligue Professionelle 2 is the second football level in Tunisia, under Ligue Professionelle 1 which is the top level of Tunisian football. Contested by 24 clubs, divided in two groups, playing each other twice during the season, the top two te ...

. In the 2013–14 season, he was transferred to

ES Métlaoui Étoile Sportive de Métlaoui ( ar, النجم الرياضي بالمتلوي) or ESM is a Tunisian football club, based in the city of Métlaoui Métlaoui ( aeb, متلوي ') is a town and commune in the Gafsa Governorate, Tunisia. In 2014 ...

when he was 20 years old. After spending two seasons with the team, he was prominently featured and invited to the Tunisian Olympic team. He attracted the attention of the officials of

CS Sfaxien Club Sportif Sfaxien ( ar, النادي الرياضي الصفاقسي) is a Tunisian professional association football club founded in 1928. History The club was founded in 1928 as ''Club Tunisien'', playing in green and red stripes. The team ...

, one of the most important teams in the

Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 The Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 (; ar, الرابطة المحترفة الأولى لكرة القدم) was previously called the Tunisian National Championship between 1956 and 1994. is the top division football tournament in Tunisia und ...

who sought to sign with him, starting from the 2014–15 season. From his first season with CS Sfaxien, Meriah was a key figure in the squad and played in many of the team's defensive positions.

Olympiacos

On 28 July 2018, Meriah joined

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

for an estimated transfer fee of €1,500,000, signing a four-year contract. On 2 September 2018, he scored his first goal for the club in a 5–0 home win against

PAS Giannina PAS Giannina Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ ΠΑΣ Γιάννινα 1966), or with its full name Panepirotikos Athlitikos Syllogos Giannina ( el, Πανηπειρωτικός Αθλητικός Σύλλογος Γιάννινα, ''Panepirotic Athleti ...

. On 31 January 2020, Meriah officially loaned in

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 Kasımpaşa, until the end of the 2019–20 season, with a €5 million buyout clause expected in the summer. Meriah started this year as de facto leader in Olympiakos defence, having a great presence in the Champions League qualifiers. Later, however, there were some games in which he made mistakes, so he was sidelined. On 13 September 2020, he signed a long season loan with another

club

Çaykur Rizespor Çaykur Rizespor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Rize. The club play in the TFF First League. The club was founded on May 19, 1953, with green-yellow as club colours, but later changed to blue-green. Since 1990, the team ...

Al Ain FC

On 28 July 2021, Meriah joined

Al Ain Al Ain ( ar, ٱلْعَيْن, , ) is a city in the western side of Tawam (region), Tuwwam region and the seat of the administrative division of its namesake, Al-Ain Region, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. ...

for an reported transfer fee of €2 million signing a two-year contract.

International career

Meriah's success with his club led him to the Tunisia national team for the first time by coach

Georges Leekens Georges Leekens (born 18 May 1949) is a Belgian football manager and former player. During his managerial career, he was in charge of four national teams: the Belgian, Tunisian, Algerian and Hungarian national football teams. He also managed ...

on 13 June 2015 against

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

in 2016 African Nations Championship qualification. He scored his first goal against

DR Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

. In May 2018 he was named in Tunisia's final 23-man squad for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

in Russia. In June 2019 he was named in Tunisia's final 23-man squad for the

2019 Africa Cup of Nations The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2019 or CAN 2019), known as the Total 2019 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champion ...

in Egypt.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Individual *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

Team of the Tournament:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meriah, Yassine 1993 births Living people Association football defenders Association football midfielders Tunisian footballers Tunisia international footballers AS Ariana players ES Métlaoui players CS Sfaxien players Olympiacos F.C. players Kasımpaşa S.K. footballers Çaykur Rizespor footballers Al Ain FC players Espérance Sportive de Tunis players Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 players Super League Greece players Süper Lig players UAE Pro League players 2015 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations players Tunisia under-23 international footballers People from Aryanah 2018 FIFA World Cup players Tunisian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate footballers in the United Arab Emirates Tunisian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Tunisian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Tunisian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players Tunisia A' international footballers 2016 African Nations Championship players 2022 FIFA World Cup players