Benjamin Fernand Lucien François Stambouli (born 13 August 1990) 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 le ...

who plays as a

defensive 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 ...

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

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

Adana Demirspor Adana Demirspor Kulübü is a sports club based in Adana, Turkey. Founded by railway workers in 1940, the club is competitive in football, watersports, racquet sports and martial arts. Football team's thriving success at the Adana League and t ...

. Stambouli began his professional career with

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

, playing 130 games from 2010 to 2014 and winning

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

in 2012. After a season each with

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

and

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

– winning five domestic trophies with the latter – he signed for

Schalke Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rh ...

in 2016. Stambouli made 12 appearances for France at under-21 level from 2010 to 2012.

Early life

Benjamin Fernand Lucien François Stambouli was born on 13 August 1990 in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, Bouches-du-Rhône. His father is

Henri Stambouli Henri Stambouli (born 5 August 1961) is a French former football player and a current manager. Coaching career Stambouli coached Marseille and Sedan in France. He managed the Togo national football team, leaving the position in September 200 ...

, a former football player and the current youth director of French club

. One of his grandfathers is former manager Gérard Banide.

Club career

Montpellier

Stambouli spent eight months as a child at

, and also had two years at Sedan before joining the ranks of

in July 2004. On 3 March 2010, he signed his first professional contract, a three-year deal with Montpellier. Stambouli made his professional debut on 8 August 2010 on the first day of the

2010–11 Ligue 1 The 2010–11 Ligue 1 season (known as ''Ligue 1 Orange'' for sponsorship reasons) was the 73rd since its establishment. Entering the season, Marseille were the defending champions. The fixtures were announced on 21 May 2010 and the season began ...

season, playing the full 90 minutes of a 1–0 home win over

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

. During the 2011–12 season, he played 26 league games as Montpellier won the Ligue 1 title for the first time in the club's history. During the 2013–14 season, Stambouli played 37 out of Montpellier's 38 league games and was promoted to position of vice-captain behind Brazilian

Vitorino Hilton Vitorino Hilton da Silva (born 13 September 1977), commonly known as Vitorino Hilton or just Hilton, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Beginning his career in Brazil, at 23 he moved to Europe to play f ...

Tottenham Hotspur

On 1 September 2014, Stambouli signed for

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 ...

team

for an undisclosed fee, rumoured to be in the region of £4.7 million. He scored his only goal for the club 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. It ...

match against

Partizan Partizan may refer to: Sport * JSD Partizan, a sports society from Belgrade, Serbia, which includes the following clubs: **AK Partizan, athletics ** Biciklistički Klub Partizan, cycling ** Džudo Klub Partizan, judo **FK Partizan, association fo ...

on 27 November, following up a shot from

Roberto Soldado Roberto Soldado Rillo (; born 27 May 1985) is a Spanish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Segunda División club Levante UD, Levante. After emerging through Real Madrid CF, ...

, which had rebounded off of the post. Stambouli appeared in every round of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

as Tottenham reached the final at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

where, however, Stambouli was an unused substitute as Tottenham were beaten 2–0 by Chelsea. At the conclusion of his first year at Spurs, Stambouli had made just 12 appearances in the Premier League.

Paris Saint-Germain

On 20 July 2015,

manager

Laurent Blanc Laurent Robert Blanc (born 19 November 1965) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back, and is currently the manager of Ligue 1 club Lyon. He has the nickname ''Le Président'', which was given to him ...

confirmed Stambouli would be joining PSG for a fee of £6 million, £1.3 million more than Tottenham had paid a year earlier. He made his debut on 1 August in the 2015 Trophée des Champions at the Stade Saputo in Montreal, playing the final 20 minutes in place of

Marco Verratti Marco Verratti (; born 5 November 1992) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Italy national team. He is often considered as one of the best midfielders in the wor ...

in a 2–0 victory over

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. Stambouli played 40 total matches for PSG, winning all four domestic trophies in his one whole season, but did not score and assist and was unpopular with some fans due to his connections to their rival Marseille. His final match was the

2016 Trophée des Champions The 2016 Trophée des Champions ( en, 2016 Champions Trophy) was the 21st edition of the Trophée des Champions, French super cup. The match was contested by the 2015–16 Ligue 1 and 2015–16 Coupe de France, Coupe de France champions Paris Sai ...

, which his team won 4–1 against Lyon in Austria.

Schalke 04

After spending only one season with the French champions, Stambouli joined Germany's

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

on a four-year contract on 26 August 2016. He made his debut on 9 September in a 2–0 home loss to reigning champions

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which play ...

. On 20 May, he was sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct in the last game of the season, a 1–1 draw at

FC Ingolstadt 04 Fußball-Club Ingolstadt 2004 e.V., commonly known as FC Ingolstadt 04 or FC Ingolstadt, is a German football club based in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. The club was founded in 2004 out of the merger of the football sides of two other clubs: ESV Ingolst ...

, and suspended for two matches. Stambouli suffered a

metatarsal The metatarsal bones, or metatarsus, are a group of five long bones in the foot, located between the tarsal bones of the hind- and mid-foot and the phalanges of the toes. Lacking individual names, the metatarsal bones are numbered from the med ...

injury in October 2019, ruling him out for the rest of the season. On 4 August 2020, he extended his contract with Schalke until 2023. Due to a clause in that deal, he left following their relegation in May 2021.

Adana Demirspor

On 26 July 2021, Stambouli joined Turkish club

on a two-year contract. He was one of a number of high-profile players joining the newly promoted

club that summer, including

Mario Balotelli Mario Balotelli Barwuah (; ''né'' Barwuah; born 12 August 1990) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Swiss Super League club Sion. Balotelli started his professional football career in 2005 at Lumezzane, before ...

International career

Stambouli played 14 times for France at under-21 level, from his debut on 8 October 2010 in a 2–0 friendly win over

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...

. Stambouli is eligible for the Algeria national team because his father was born there; in November 2018 he denied rumours that he would play for them.

Career statistics

Honours

Montpellier *

: 2011–12 Tottenham Hotspur *

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

runner-up: 2014–15 Paris Saint-Germain *Ligue 1: 2015–16 *

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 ...

: 2015–16 *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Football in France, French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was est ...

: 2015–16 *

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries. His ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stambouli, Benjamin 1990 births Living people Footballers from Marseille French footballers Association football defenders Association football midfielders Montpellier HSC players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players FC Schalke 04 players Adana Demirspor footballers Ligue 1 players Premier League players Bundesliga players Süper Lig players French expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Turkey French expatriate sportspeople in England French expatriate sportspeople in Germany French expatriate sportspeople in Turkey France under-21 international footballers French sportspeople of Algerian descent