Yannis Tafer

Early career

Tafer was born in the city of Grenoble in the Rhône-Alpes region to an Algerian father, who emigrated to France from Constantine, and a Portuguese mother. He began his football career with a local club in the region, FC Échirolles. After spending seven years with his childhood club, Tafer signed an aspirant (youth) contract with the then three-time champions Olympique Lyonnais.

Lyon

Following the 2007–08 season, Tafer signed his first professional contract with Lyon agreeing to a three-year contract until 2011. For the 2008–09 season, he was placed on Lyon's first-team squad and was assigned the 34 shirt, though he was reassigned to the number 29. Tafer was a key participant in the club's preseason tour playing in four of the five matches contested. He scored three goals in the preseason netting one each against second division club Nîmes, Romanian club Rapid București, and fellow Ligue 1 club Nancy. Despite being on the first-team, Tafer was limited to playing mostly on the club's Championnat de France amateur team appearing in 15 matches scoring five goals, which included a brace against RCO Agde and goals against rivals Saint-Étienne and AS Lyon Duchère. On 24 January 2009, Tafer made his professional debut in the club's Coupe de France match against Concarneau coming on as a substitute in the 75th minute. In the match, he was instrumental in the club's 5th goal after taking a pass and shooting the ball, which went off the post. Teammate…

Tafer is a France youth international having played under-17, under-18, and under-19 level. He made his youth international debut with the under-17 team on 2 October 2007 against Switzerland. Tafer scored a brace in the team's 4–0 victory. On 4 December 2007, Tafer scored both goals in the team's 2–1 win over Turkey. At the Algarve Cup in Portugal, he helped the team to a 2nd-place finish by scoring his fifth goal of the campaign in the team's 4–2 win against Denmark. In the Elite Round portion of qualification for the 2008 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship, Tafer scored a double against Israel in the team's second group stage match. France finished the round unbeaten, which led to qualification to the UEFA-sanctioned tournament. At the tournament, Tafer led all players with four goals scored. He scored all of his goals in the group stage netting one against the Republic of Ireland, another one against Spain, and two goals against Switzerland. France later reached the final where they were defeated 4–0 by Spain. Tafer finished the campaign with the under-17s appearing in 19 matches and scoring a team-high 11 goals. With the under-18 team, Tafer scored a team-leading seven goals in only eight matches. On 25 March 2009, he scored a hat trick against Germany in a 4–3 victory. On 13 June, Tafer converted another hat trick, this time against England in a 4–2 victory. The match was played at Wembley Stadium in front of 15,000 spectators and the victory resulted in the…

As of 1 July 2019

Yannis is the cousin of Aziz Tafer, who is a former professional footballer. Yannis cites his idols as former teammate and mentor Karim Benzema and former Brazilian international Ronaldo.