Badredine Bouanani plays as a right winger for Nice. The player has been making good impressions and brings great hope to Algerian hearts, especially due to his playing style similarity to one of the country’s all-time best players: Riyad Mahrez.
Follow along with us as we trace his journey, characteristics, and future prospects.
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Index
Badredine Bouanani’s Journey
Badredine Bouanani, or simply Bouanani, was born on December 8, 2004, in the city of Lille, France.
His family originates from Algeria. As we know, Algeria was a French protectorate for a long time, leading to frequent exchanges between citizens of both countries, as seen with two of the greatest players of the French national team, Karim Benzema and Zinedine Zidane.
Bouanani, however, took the opposite path. Even though born in France, he chose to represent Algeria in professional football.
The 19-year-old stands at 177cm tall, is left-footed, and operates as a right winger for Nice.
His football journey began in his hometown. He joined Lille’s youth academy at the age of 7 in 2011.
He underwent his entire development within the northern French club but, upon turning professional, he made the move from north to south.
Image: Shoot Africa
The transfer from Lille to Nice seemingly did not involve any transfer fees, with Bouanani joining his current club for free.
He has long been viewed as a promising future player. Consequently, he has been called up to the French national team since the U16 level, progressing to the U19 level.
However, as mentioned earlier, he chose to represent Algeria as a professional player. Once this choice is made and one steps onto the field, there is no turning back.
Hence, the youngster must be very committed to his decision, which is commendable for someone of such a young age.
This marks Bouanani’s second season among the professionals.
Next, let’s take a look at his statistics and playing style.
Image: Reproduction La Gazette du Fennec
Statistics and Playing Style
Badredine Bouanani has a playing style very similar to one of, if not the best Algerian player of all time, Riyad Mahrez.
Similar to his idol, Bouanani is left-footed, skillful, and plays wide as a right winger.
He is a player with easy dribbling abilities. Remarkably, even his body movement resembles that of Mahrez. With long legs, he can shield the ball and dribble past opponents very effectively.
These attributes reflect positively in his success rate, with his successful actions standing at around 60%. Moreover, his successful dribbles exceed 51%, meaning he completes more than half of the attempted dribbles, which is commendable at an age where decision-making is not fully matured, and the chance of error is higher.
Another interesting aspect of the youngster’s playing style is that, unlike most players in his position, he isn’t a speedster but rather a creator.
Many wingers excel in duels against opponents, speed, and making plays from the byline.
However, Bouanani tends to carry the ball into the centre of the field and usually opts for a vertical pass, seeking forwards making incisive runs.
This style becomes even more intriguing considering that, according to Wyscout, he has an 80.6% pass success rate.
Thus, despite attempting difficult vertical passes, he still manages a good success rate in this aspect.
However, there are areas for improvement.
While playing wide, he positions himself in the final third of the field, the area for finishing plays. Yet, there seems to be a lack of a strong desire from him to finish the move. Even though he does, there’s a lack of that special touch to put the ball in the back of the net.
This reflects in his professional numbers. While he averages almost 0.3 assists per game (which is considered very good for his age), his goal-scoring average is only 0.08 goals per game.
In fact, playing for Nice’s first team, he hasn’t yet scored a goal, having done so only for Nice B.
Furthermore, he needs to increase his physical strength as he gets easily unsettled by physically stronger opponents.
It’s important to note that these details are gathered from Wyscout and Rondo Reports.
Image: F.Faugere/L’Equipe
Future Prospects and Evaluation
Bouanani has good chances in top-tier international football if he can work on the mentioned areas.
We can see that to certain coaches, including one of the greatest in history, Pep Guardiola, this type of player fits well into their system.
Therefore, the prospect of playing at a high level in the top European teams earns Badredine Bouanani a rating of 7.6.
Image: Reproduction OG Nice
Written by Vitor F L Miller.
