Nabil Fekir

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 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".

Lyon

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…

Fekir made one appearance for the France U21 national team, 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. 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. 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. He scored his first goal for the France senior team on 7 June 2015, in a 4–3 home friendly defeat to Belgium. 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. 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. He had to withdraw from the squad three days later, however, due to an injury. On 7 October, he made his competitive debut for France as an 83rd-minute substitute for Antoine…

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."

Fekir was born to Algerian parents, who are originally from Menaceur, a small town in Tipaza, Algeria. His father settled in France in 1992 and worked in a metallurgy factory for a long time, while his mother was a social worker. He is the oldest of the family's four brothers. His brother, Yassin Fekir, also made his professional debut at Lyon and transferred with him to Betis. Fekir is a Muslim, and gives to charity when unable to fast for Ramadan during the football season.