Nabil Fekir

**Nabil Fekir** (born 18 July 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or a forward for Borussia Dortmund.

## Club career

### Youth

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 AS 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".[2]

### Lyon

Fekir in training with Lyon in 2017.

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.[3] 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.[4] Three days later he made his Ligue 1 debut, playing the entire match in 2–1 away defeat to Evian TG.[5] 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.[6][7]
 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.[8] 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.[9] He finished the 2014-15 Ligue 1 season with 13 goals and 9 assists.[2]

On 29 August 2015, Fekir scored a hat-trick in a 4–0 Ligue 1 away win at Caen.[10] He missed most of the 2015–16 season with torn knee ligaments.[2]

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.[11]

In early August 2017, following the transfer of Maxime Gonalons to AS Roma a month earlier, Fekir was named captain of the club.[12] On 5 November, he scored two goals in a 5–0 away Ligue 1 victory over fierce rivals AS Saint-Etienne.
 After Fekir scored his second goal in the 84th minute, he took off his
 shirt and brandished his name and number to the Saint-Étienne
supporters, who threw objects and spilled onto the field, outraged by
the gesture. Referee Clément Turpin
 led the players away from the field and riot police ran onto the field
to restore order. The match was stopped for 40 minutes before the two
teams could play out its final five minutes in a virtually empty Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.[13][14]

In 2017–18, Fekir was part of a prolific forward line alongside Memphis Depay and Mariano; he contributed 18 goals, as did the Dutchman, with the Spaniard totalling 19 for the team.[15]

## International career

Fekir made just one appearance for the France national youth football team. He earned one cap at the under-21 level by coming on as a substitute (in the 75th minute) for Corentin Tolisso in the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification play-offs
 second-leg away match against Sweden on 15 October 2014; France lost
the match 4-1 and 4-3 on aggregate and hence did not qualify for the
final phase of the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in the Czech Republic.[18][19]

Fekir was named in his ancestral Algeria's squad for friendlies against Oman and Qatar in March 2015. However, he withdrew to take part in the French squad for friendlies against Brazil and Denmark.[8] He made his France senior team debut on 26 March 2015 against the former at the Stade de France, replacing Antoine Griezmann for the final 16 minutes of a 3–1 defeat.[20] He scored his first goal for the France senior team on 7 June 2015, in a 3–4 home friendly defeat to Belgium.[21] On 4 September 2015, he made his first start for the France senior team in a 1–0 away friendly win over Portugal during which he ruptured three ligaments in his right knee, putting him out of action for an estimated six months.[2][22]

On 25 August 2016, Fekir was called back up to the senior squad for the first time since his injury for a friendly against Italy and a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Belarus.[23] He had to withdraw from the squad three days later, however, due to an injury.[24] On 7 October, he made his competitive debut for France as an 83rd-minute substitute for Antoine Griezmann in the 2018 World Cup qualifying 4–1 win over Bulgaria at the Stade de France.[18]

## Style of play

Upon calling him for the France senior squad in March 2015, manager Didier Deschamps
 said that "Fekir is a player with great potential. I consider that he
can bring us something different. He plays in a different role to the
others. He can score and set up others to score well."[8]

.