Benaissa Benamar (; born 8 April 1997) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Botola The Botola Pro (), officially known as the Botola Pro Inwi for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Morocco and the top tier of the Moroccan football league system. Organized by the Ligue Nationale de Football Prof ...

side

Raja CA Raja Club Athletic, widely known as Raja Casablanca or simply Raja, is a Football team, football club based in Casablanca, Morocco, that competes in Botola, the top flight of Moroccan football league system, Moroccan football. Founded on 20 M ...

. Born in the Netherlands, he has represented Morocco at youth level.

Club career

Early years

Benamar played in the youth departments of Dutch clubs

VVA/Spartaan VVA/Spartaan is a Dutch amateur football club from the Amsterdam borough of Amsterdam-West in the neighborhood Bos en Lommer, founded in 1901. The club hold both a Saturday and a Sunday team, with both competing in the Derde Klasse. History The ...

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

, AFC,

Volendam Volendam () is a tourist town in the Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of Edam-Volendam, Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands, known for its streets, old fishing boats and the traditional clothing wor ...

Zeeburgia The Amsterdamse Voetbalvereniging Zeeburgia is a football club from Amsterdam, Netherlands. It has been dubbed " royal supplier" as many Dutch professional footballers started at Zeeburgia youth teams. In 2024–25, their first team plays in the ...

and

ADO Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation ...

. Between 2016 and 2018, he played for

Jong FC Twente Jong FC Twente (English: Young FC Twente) are the reserve team of FC Twente, a team from Enschede which played in the Eerste Divisie from 2013 to 2015. Staff * Head coach: Michel Jansen Michel Jansen (born 3 March 1966) is a Dutch footbal ...

, the second-team of

FC Twente Football Club Twente (), sometimes known internationally as FC Twente Enschede, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub E ...

with whom he suffered relegation from the

Tweede Divisie Tweede Divisie (; ) is the highest amateur (and historically the lowest professional) football league in the Netherlands. It was established in 1956, together with the Eredivisie and the Eerste Divisie. Between 1956 and 1960 and between 1962 and 19 ...

to the

Derde Divisie The Derde Divisie (; ), formerly known as Topklasse (; ), is the fourth tier of football in the Netherlands, which had its inaugural season as a third tier in 2010–11 and as a fourth tier in 2016–17. The league is placed between the Tweede D ...

in his first season. In 2018,

was removed from the Dutch football pyramid, and Benamar left for Moroccan club

Ittihad Tanger Ittihad Riadi Tanger (; ), often shortened to IR Tanger or the abbreviation IRT, is a Moroccan football club based in Tangier, that competes in Botola, Morocco's top professional football league. The club was founded in 1936 as Unión Deportiva ...

. At Ittihad, he made six appearances in the top-tier Botola Pro 1, and also played in the

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club (association football), club football competition organized by the Conf ...

and

CAF Confederation Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football football team, club competition established in 2004 and organized by Confederation of African Football, CAF ...

Telstar

In 2019, Benamar signed a two-year contract with Dutch second-tier

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

club

SC Telstar Sportclub Telstar () is a Dutch professional football club based in the town of Velsen-Zuid, North Holland. The team competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of the Dutch football league system, following promotion from the Eerste Divisie in t ...

after a successful trial. He immediately established himself as a starter in defense and made 28 appearances during the 2019–20 season, in which he scored three goals. In September 2020, Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town is best known for being the centre of the Ita ...

showed their interest in signing Benamar, but ultimately could not agree with

Telstar Telstar refers to a series of communications satellites. The first two, Telstar 1 and Telstar 2, were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched atop of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962, successfully relayed the first televisi ...

on a transfer sum.

Utrecht

On 6 January 2021, it was announced that Benamar had signed a two-year contract with

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion ...

, with an option for two additional years.

Volendam

On 13 January 2022, Benamar returned to

on loan until the end of the season. The loan had a conditional obligation to buy in case of Volendam's promotion to

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

. Volendam were promoted at the end of the 2021–22 season, triggering the option. Benamar scored on his Eredivisie debut for Volendam, heading in a corner from Daryl van Mieghem to secure the 2–2 final score on the first matchday of the 2022–23 season. On 2 September 2024, Benamar's contract with Volendam was terminated by mutual consent.

Raja CA

On 19 September 2024, Benamar signed a two-year contract with

Honours

Individual *

Team of the Month: October 2023

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benamar, Benaissa 1997 births Living people Moroccan men's footballers 21st-century Moroccan sportsmen Morocco men's youth international footballers Men's association football defenders Sportspeople from Nador Footballers from Oriental (Morocco) AFC Ajax players Amsterdamsche FC players FC Volendam players AVV Zeeburgia players ADO Den Haag players Jong FC Twente players IR Tanger players SC Telstar players FC Utrecht players Raja CA players Botola players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players