Kheira Hamraoui (born 13 January 1990) 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

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Al-Shabab.

Club career

Youth career

Hamraoui began her football career with Clairefontaine, a renowned football academy for female French youth players.

Division 1 Féminine

Hamraoui has played the majority of her career in the

Division 1 Féminine Division may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting of 10,000 to ...

, for clubs including

Hénin-Beaumont Hénin-Beaumont (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of Franc about east of Lens, Pas-de-Calais, Lens. History The commune came into existence in 1970, the r ...

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

, and PSG. At Saint-Étienne, she was a crucial part of the club's first and only major title win, the 2011 Challenge de France. Hamraoui signed for

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

from PSG in 2016 after spending four years with the club. It was here that she won two continental trebles by winning the Champions League twice, winning the

Coupe de France Féminine The Coupe de France Féminine (, ''Women's French Cup'') is the top annual cup tournament for French women's football clubs. The competition is open to all professional and non-professional women's teams in France. Founded in 2001 as Challenge ...

twice, and finishing first in the Division 1 Féminine for two consecutive seasons. In June 2018, she announced her departure from the French league and that she was looking for a new opportunity abroad.

2018–21: Barcelona

She left

in 2018 to sign a two-year contract with

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, her first club venture outside of France. In her first season with the club, she helped them progress to the semifinals of the

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. ...

for the first time. They played

Bayern Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total land area of Germany, and with over 13.08 million ...

, and Hamraoui bagged an important away goal in the first leg with a low shot to the bottom left corner. In the return leg at the

Mini Estadi Miniestadi (, meaning in English "Mini Stadium"), officially named "Miniestadi", was a football stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The 15,276-seat stadium was situated across from Camp Nou, the home stadium of FC Barcelona. The stadium was ...

, Barcelona increased their aggregate score after a goal scored from a penalty, but Hamraoui found herself getting sent off after receiving a second yellow card. Barcelona won 2–0 on aggregate to advance to their first ever UWCL final, but Hamraoui was suspended and was not able to play against her former club. Lyon won the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

4–1. In her last season with the club, she won the historic treble of Primera División, Champions League and

Copa de la Reina Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Association * Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association * Parlia ...

. On 24 June 2021, she announced she was leaving Barcelona, stating on Twitter that "I've reached ALL my objectives with Barcelona... My mission here is over. A new adventure begins."

2021–2023: Return to Paris Saint-Germain

On 15 July, Hamraoui signed a two-year deal with

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

. In June 2023 she left PSG as a free agent after her contract ended.

2023: Club America

in late 2023, Hamraoui signed and played for Club America for the second half of the season.

2024: Al-Shabab FC (Saudi Arabia)

On 22 August 2024, Al-Shabab signed Hamraoui to play in the

Saudi Women's Premier League The Saudi Women's Premier League officially the SAFF Women's Premier League () is the top flight of women's football in Saudi Arabia. History The first Saudi women's club were King's United based in Jeddah, and Eastern Flames in Dhahran. Bot ...

International career

In October 2012 Hamraoui made her debut for the

France national team France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in a friendly game against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. She was part of the France squad at the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the f ...

and the

2016 Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. Hamraoui has not received a national team call-up since April 2019 and was not selected to the France squad at the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football, football championship contested by 24 List of women's national association football teams, women's ...

Assault incident

On 4 November 2021, Hamraoui was assaulted in the street after two masked men dragged her from a club-issued car, assaulting her with iron bars. Her teammate Aminata Diallo, who was driving the car, was arrested following the incident; she was later released from police custody without any charges. During the attack, the masked men who assaulted Hamraoui were reported to have said "so like that, ousleep with married men?" On 19 November,

Eric Abidal Eric Sylvain Abidal (; born 11 September 1979) is a French former professional footballer who played as a left-back or centre-back. He played mainly for Lyon and Barcelona, totalling 18 trophies with both teams, including two Champions Leagues ...

's wife Hayet announced that she had filed for divorce after it came to light that he was having an affair with Hamraoui. However, after further investigation, Diallo was re-arrested in September 2022 on charges of serious bodily harm.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list France's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Hamraoui goal.''

Honours

Saint-Étienne *

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Paris Saint-Germain *

: runners-up, 2014 Lyon *

: 2016–17, 2017–18 *

: 2017 Barcelona * Primera División: 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, runners-up: 2018–19 *

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

, 2021 *

Supercopa de España Femenina The Supercopa de España Femenina or the ''Spanish Women's Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football, contested by the winners and runners up of the Copa de la Reina and the remaining highest ranked teams from the Primera Divisió ...

Copa Catalunya The Copa Catalunya () is a knockout competition organised by the Catalan Football Federation for football clubs in the Catalonia autonomous community of Spain. History Between 1903 and 1940, it was known as the ''Catalan football championship ...

: 2019 France *

Cyprus Cup The Cyprus Women's Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's football. It has been held annually in Cyprus since 2008. Although the competition takes place in Cyprus, the hosts have yet to take part in the competitio ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Individual *

Squad of the Season: 2019–20

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamraoui, Kheira 1990 births Living people Sportspeople from Croix, Nord French women's footballers France women's youth international footballers France women's international footballers French expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate women's footballers in Spain Expatriate women's footballers in Mexico FC Barcelona Femení players Paris Saint-Germain FC (women) players Club América (women) footballers AS Saint-Étienne (women) players CNFE Clairefontaine players Olympique Lyonnais Féminin players Women's association football midfielders 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players French sportspeople of Algerian descent Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for France Première Ligue players Footballers from Nord (French department) Liga F players Liga MX Femenil players FCF Hénin-Beaumont players UEFA Women's Champions League–winning players 21st-century French sportswomen