Elyaz Zidane Fernández (born 26 December 2005) is a French 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

Primera Federación The Primera Federación, officially the Primera Federación Versus e-Learning for sponsorship reasons (formerly known as Primera RFEF). is the third tier of the Spanish football league system beginning with the 2021–22 season. It is administe ...

club Betis Deportivo, the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

Early life

Elyaz Zidane was born on 26 December 2005 in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

. He is the youngest son of former French footballer

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; ; ''Zineddin Lyazid Zidan''; ; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as an attacking midfi ...

. Elyaz is the last of four brothers, and all of them –

Enzo Enzo is an Italian given name derivative of the German name Heinz. It can be used also as the short form for Lorenzo, Vincenzo, Innocenzo, or Fiorenzo. It is most common in the Romance-speaking world, particularly in Italy and Latin America. ...

Luca Luca or LUCA may refer to: People * Luca (masculine given name), including a list of people * Luca (feminine given name), including a list of people * Luca (surname), including a list of people Places * The ancient name of Lucca, an Etruscan ...

, and Théo – are footballers who developed at the youth academy of Real Madrid. Elyaz is of Spanish descent through his mother, and of Algerian descent through his father.

Club career

Elyaz started his career at

CD Canillas Club Deportivo Canillas is a Spanish football club based in Madrid, Spain. It was founded in 1961 and plays in the . CD Canillas is a feeder team of Real Madrid. History Canillas was formed in 1961 in Nápoles, Hortaleza, initially under the name ...

, before joining La Fábrica in 2013. He went through all the levels of the youth academy, already showing his skills with several goals in the Juvenil classicos. He started playing with the under-19 during the 2021–22 season. In January 2024, Zidane left Real Madrid to join

, signing a contract until June 2026.

International career

Also eligible for the Spanish selection through his mother, Elyaz is a youth international for France, having made his debut with the France under-17 team, in October 2021. Having already scored two goals with the bleuets, including one on his debut, he even captained his side for a friendly against Spain in 2022. In April 2022, he was selected with France for the

2022 UEFA European Under-17 Championship The 2022 UEFA European Under-17 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-17 Euro 2022) was the 19th UEFA European Under-17 Championship (38th edition if the Under-16 era is also included), the annual international youth football championship organise ...

Style of play

A left-footed defender, Elyaz is described as a physical player with a good reading of the game. He is able to play both as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

or a

central defender 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 ...

Career statistics

Honours

France U17 *

UEFA European Under-17 Championship The UEFA European Under-17 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-17, is an annual Association football, football competition contested by the men's under-17 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain national under-17 football team, ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zidane, Elyaz 2005 births Living people Footballers from Marseille French men's footballers France men's youth international footballers French sportspeople of Algerian descent French people of Spanish descent Sportspeople of Spanish descent Men's association football defenders Zidane family Spanish men's footballers Spanish people of Algerian descent Spanish people of Kabyle descent Kabyle people French people of Kabyle descent Betis Deportivo Balompié footballers Segunda Federación players 21st-century French sportsmen 21st-century Spanish sportsmen