Selim Amallah ( Berber: ⵙⴰⵍⵉⵎ ⴰⵎⴰⵍⵍⴰⵃ) ( ar, سليم أملاح; born 15 November 1996) 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 ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

club

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the S ...

, on loan from Segunda División club

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club colo ...

. Born in Belgium, he plays for the Morocco national team.

Club career

Early career

He was born in , Belgium, to a Moroccan father, Houcine Amallah, and a Belgian mother of Belgian and Italian descent, Antoinette Caufriez. He is a cousin of fellow footballer

Maximiliano Caufriez Maximiliano Caufriez (born 16 February 1997) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back and right-back for club Clermont. Club career Caufriez was born and raised in Mons where he started to play as a youth. Later, he j ...

. Amallah began his senior career with

Royal Excel Mouscron Royal Excel Mouscron (, ), commonly known as Mouscron or familiarly as REM, was a Belgian professional football club based in Mouscron. The team was formed as ''Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz'' in the spring of 2010 as a result of the merging between ...

in 2015. He moved to Tubize in the following year, before returning to Mouscron in 2017.

Standard Liège

Amallah joined

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the mo ...

in 2019. On 12 December 2019, he scored Standard's second goal to put the club up on

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

during the group stage of the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

; but Arsenal scored twice in the final 12 minutes to snatch a 2–2 draw. Three days later, he scored in Standard's 1–1 draw against his former club and

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as th ...

. On 1 October 2020, in a UEFA Europa League play-off match against Fehérvár, Amallah scored twice from the penalty-spot to help secure a 3–1 win and qualification to the group stage. In November 2020, he was awarded with the

Belgian Lion Award The Belgian Lion Award (Dutch: ''Belgische Leeuw'', French: ''Lion Belge'') is a football award in Belgium given annually to the best Maghreb player of Arab / Amazigh origin in the Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially th ...

, given to the best player of Arab origin playing in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

. He succeeded his compatriot,

Mehdi Carcela Mehdi François Carcela-González ( ar, المهدي كارسيلا; born 1 July 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for the Morocco national team. He began his career in his hometown club Standard Liège, playing 157 g ...

, who won the previous two editions. On 13 March 2021, he scored the only goal as Standard defeated

Eupen Eupen (, ; ; formerly ) is the capital of German-speaking Community of Belgium and is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of Liège, from the German border ( Aachen), from the Dutch border (Maastricht) and from the " High Fe ...

to reach the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

of the Belgian Cup.

Valladolid

On 31 January 2023, Amallah signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with

side

. He scored twice in seven appearances during the remainder of the season, as the club suffered relegation.

Loan to Valencia

On 29 August 2023, Amallah moved to

in the Spanish top tier on a one-year loan deal.

International career

Amallah was born in Belgium and is of Moroccan and Italian descent. He chose to represent the Morocco national team at the international level and made his competitive debut in a 0–0 draw with Mauritania on 15 November 2019 in qualification match for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations. On 9 October 2020, he scored his first goal for the Atlas Lions in a match against

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣� ...

after being set up by Achraf Hakimi. He then provided an assist for Youssef En-Nesyri's goal in the 71st minute as Morocco won 3–1. On 10 November 2022, he was named in Morocco's 23-man squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first Wo ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

Personal life

His mother Antoinette died when he was 14 years old. Amallah has since played every game for her, and honored her at the

, where he played an important role for Morocco, eventually reaching the semifinals and finishing the tournament in 4th place.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Individual *

Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropo ...

Player of the Year: 2019 *

: 2020 Orders *

Order of the Throne The Order of the Throne (Arabic: ''Wissam al-Arch'', French: ''Ordre du Trône'') is a state decoration of the Kingdom of Morocco awarded for distinguished services of a civil or military nature. The Order was instituted on 16 May 1963 by King Ha ...

: 2022

References

External links

Profile
at the Real Valladolid website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Amallah, Selim 1996 births Living people Riffian people Moroccan men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Morocco men's international footballers Belgian men's footballers Moroccan people of Italian descent Belgian sportspeople of Moroccan descent Belgian people of Italian descent R.A.E.C. Mons (1910) players Royal Excel Mouscron players Royale Union Tubize-Braine players Standard Liège players Belgian Pro League players Real Valladolid players Valencia CF players La Liga players Segunda División players 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Moroccan expatriate men's footballers Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain