Nabil Fekir

Nabil Fekir (Arabic: نبيل فقير; born 18 July 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for UAE Pro League club Al Jazira.

An academy graduate of Lyon, he was promoted to the senior squad in July 2013. Fekir became a first-team regular in his second season, when he was named the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year. He made 192 appearances for Les Gones, scoring 69 goals and also gaining team captaincy in 2017. In 2019, he transferered to Betis for an initial €19.75 million, winning the Copa del Rey in 2022.

Fekir made his debut for France in March 2015 and was chosen in their squad that won the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Fekir joined the youth academy of Olympique Lyonnais at the age of 12, and two years later he was released for not being strong enough. He rejoined Vaulx-en-Velin and continued his youth career at Saint-Priest, where he was tracked by scouts from across France. At one point Lyon's local rivals Saint-Étienne were very keen to sign Fekir, but he held out for Lyon to sign him again in 2011. He said "I wanted to show Lyon that they made a mistake".

Fekir was included in the Lyon first team squad for the first time on 30 July 2013, remaining as an unused substitute in 1–0 home win over Grasshopper in the Champions League third qualifying round first leg. He finally made his Lyon first team debut on 28 August 2013, replacing Yassine Benzia at half time in a 2–0 Champions League play-off round second leg away loss to Real Sociedad, which saw the club eliminated from the tournament after a 4–0 aggregate defeat. Three days later he made his Ligue 1 debut, playing the entire match in 2–1 away defeat to Evian TG. On 27 April 2014, against Bastia in a 4–1 Ligue 1 home win, he scored his first competitive goal (in the 23rd minute) for Lyon's first team and assisted one goal each for Bakary Koné and Alexandre Lacazette. Fekir made a total of 17 appearances in all competitions in his first season (2013–14) with Lyon's first team, scoring one goal.

During the 2014–15 season, he featured regularly for the first team and by 19 March 2015 he had scored 11 goals and assisted 7 in 25 2014–15 season Ligue 1 games, earning him his first international call up. On 17 May 2015, he was named as the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year and earned a spot in the Team of the Year. He finished the 2014–15 Ligue 1 season with 13 goals and 9 assists.

On 29 August 2015, Fekir scored a hat-trick in a 4–0 Ligue 1 away win at Caen. He missed most of the 2015–16 season with torn knee ligaments.

On 23 February 2017, Fekir scored a hat-trick and assisted Mouctar Diakhaby's 89th-minute goal) in the 2016–17 Europa League round of 32 second-leg 7–1 home win over AZ Alkmaar to be on the scoresheet of a UEFA Europa League or UEFA Champions League match for the first time in his career, by 23 February he had scored 10 goals and provided 10 assists in all competitions for the 2016–17 season.