Mattéo Guendouzi

Early career

Guendouzi started his career at the academy of Paris Saint-Germain at the age of 6. He left Paris to join Lorient's academy in 2014. After representing the Lorient reserve team, he was promoted to the first team in 2016.

Lorient

Guendouzi made his debut for Lorient on 15 October 2016, in the Ligue 1 match against Nantes in a 1–2 defeat. He played nine times in all competitions, during his debut season of 2016–17 as Lorient were relegated to the second tier at the end of the season. In the 2017–18 season, Guendouzi featured 21 times for Lorient as they missed out on promotion, finishing seventh in Ligue 2.

Arsenal

On 11 July 2018, during the summer transfer window, it was announced that Guendouzi had joined Premier League club Arsenal for an undisclosed fee, believed to be in the region of £7 million, plus bonuses. Head coach Unai Emery said: "He is a talented young player and a lot of clubs were interested in him. He has big potential and gained good first-team experience last season with Lorient. He wants to learn and improve and will be an important part of our first-team squad". On 12 August 2018, Guendouzi made his Premier League debut in Arsenal's opening fixture of the season against defending Champions Manchester City where he made 72 touches, the most for his team. They lost the match 0–2. Guendouzi scored the first professional goal of his career on 4 October 2018, rounding off the scoring in Arsenal's 3–0 away win over…

Guendouzi was born in a suburb of Paris, France. He has represented France at levels up to France U20s. With partial Moroccan heritage, Guendouzi was approached by Morocco manager Hervé Renard in 2017 to change allegiances to play for the Morocco national team. However, after Guendouzi's father met Renard in March 2017, Guendouzi decided to remain and pledge allegiance to France. On 2 September 2019, Guendouzi was called up to the French senior side for the first time to replace the injured Paul Pogba for UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers against Albania and Andorra. However, he was an unused substitute in both matches. Guendouzi was recalled to the France side on 1 September 2021, to replace the injured Corentin Tolisso for World Cup Qualification matches against Bosnia, Ukraine and Finland. He made his debut on 16 November 2021 in a World Cup qualifier against Finland. On 29 March 2022, he scored his first goal for France in a 5–0 friendly win over South Africa.

Sébastien Thierry, one of Guendouzi's coaches at the Paris Saint-Germain academy, recalled that although he was not necessarily the strongest player technically at the age of 14, he possessed very good vision, considerable endurance and a strong mentality. Thierry also described Guendouzi as a leader in PSG's youth teams who was highly determined, assertive and confident in his own ability. On Guendouzi's first call-up to the France senior team, Didier Deschamps described him as a "modern box-to-box midfielder" with a high work rate and technical ability. Guendouzi's competitiveness has also been a prominent feature of his game. He has described his hatred of losing as an attitude and mentality that contributed to his success as a professional player, while acknowledging that his emotional reactions can result from focusing on the game and playing to win – "not to draw or lose". Emmanuel Petit has described Guendouzi's personality as "volcanic". His competitive temperament has occasionally contributed to disciplinary incidents or confrontations on the pitch.

Guendouzi has a French-Moroccan father and French mother. He has a brother called Milan, who is also a footballer and plays for Bourges. Guendouzi is married to Mae and their first child, a daughter, was born in May 2021.