Bilal Bari (born 19 January 1998) 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 striker. Born in France, he has represented

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

at youth international levels (under-20 and under-23).

Club career

On 23 May 2018, Bari signed his first professional contract with his childhood club

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...

. Bari made his professional debut with Lens in a 2–0

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

win over

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and RS Berkane Renaissance Sportive de Berkane () commonly referred to as Nahdat Berkane or RS Berkane for short, is a Moroccan professional football club based in Berkane, that competes in Botola, the top flight of Moroccan football. Founded on 21 May 1938 a ...

, playing one season for them in the Moroccan

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 ...

. In the summer of 2019 he signed with the Romanian

Concordia Chiajna Clubul Sportiv Concordia Chiajna, commonly known as Concordia Chiajna, is a Romanian professional Association football, football football team, club based in Chiajna, Ilfov County, which competes in the Liga II. Founded in 1957, the team's best ...

. He played 22 games and scored 2 goals for ''The Eagles'' in the Romanian second tier division. On 2 September 2019, he signed with the Bulgarian elite

FC Montana FC Montana () is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Montana, which currently plays in the Second League, the second level of the Bulgarian football league system. Montana plays its home matches at the Ogosta Stadium, which has a ...

. After playing just half season with the Northwest Bulgarian team he was signed by one of the country's major teams -

Levski Sofia PFC Levski Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 by a group of high sc ...

. He made his league debut for the ''Blues'' on 21 February 2021 against

Etar The Etar Architectural-Ethnographic Complex (, usually referred to as Етъра, Etara) is an open-air museum near Gabrovo in northern Bulgaria. It is on the northern edge of the Bulgarka Nature Park, between the park and the city of Gabrovo. ...

. By the end of the season he appeared in eight more games, but he was not able to net a single goal. He scored his first goal for Levski on 16 October the same year against

Lokomotiv Sofia FC Lokomotiv Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently plays in the First League, the top tier of Bulgarian football. Founded as Railway Sports Club in 1929, and refounded in 2015, following ...

, netting the second goal in a 2-1 away win. By the end of the half season he played eight more league games (playing the full match each time) and scored four more goals, some of them crucial. Furthermore, he was the outfield player who played the most minutes during the first half season for Levski, starting each game and being substituted in only two of them. He also scored a hat-trick in the

2021–22 Bulgarian Cup The 2021–22 Bulgarian Cup was the 40th official edition of the Bulgarian annual football knockout tournament. It was sponsored by ''Sesame'' and known as the Sesame Kupa na Bulgaria for sponsorship purposes. The competition began on 4 September ...

round of 16 game against

Septemvri Simitli FC Septemvri () is a Bulgarian football club based in Simitli, which currently plays in the Third League, the third tier of the Bulgarian football league system. History The club was founded in 1942. From 1961 to 1975, it was called "Pirin miner ...

International career

Born in France, Bari is of Moroccan descent. He represented the Morocco U20 in their victorious campaign in the

2017 Jeux de la Francophonie The 2017 Jeux de la Francophonie, also known as ''VIIIèmes Jeux de la Francophonie'' (French language, French for ''8th Francophone Games''), informally known as Abidjan 2017, took place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from July 21–30. This was the f ...

. He debuted for the Morocco U23s in a 1–0 friendly loss to the Senegal U23 on 24 March 2018.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Morocco U20 *

Jeux de la Francophonie The Jeux de la Francophonie (Canadian English: ''Francophonie Games''; British English: ''Francophone Games'') are a combination of artistic and sporting events for the Francophonie, mostly French-speaking nations and former colonies of France ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Levski Sofia *

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup () is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournament's format is ''single-elimination'', with all matche ...

: 2021–22

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bari, Bilal 1998 births Living people Sportspeople from Lens, Pas-de-Calais Footballers from Pas-de-Calais Moroccan men's footballers Moroccan expatriate men's footballers French expatriate men's footballers Morocco men's youth international footballers French men's footballers French sportspeople of Moroccan descent Men's association football forwards Ligue 2 players Botola players Liga II players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players RC Lens players CS Concordia Chiajna players FC Montana players Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in Romania French expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria French expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria 21st-century French sportsmen 21st-century Moroccan sportsmen