Ishak Belfodil

Ishak Belfodil (Arabic: اسحاق بلفوضيل‎; born 12 January 1992) is an Algerian-French footballer who plays as a striker for Bundesliga club Hertha BSC and the Algeria national team.

A former France youth international, he was called up to the Algeria national team for the first time in August 2012.

Club Career

Early career

Belfodil began his football career at OSC Elancourt, a club located in the western suburbs of Paris, and spent his formative years at the club. He later joined nearby club Trappes FC. While at Trappes, Belfodil passed the entrance tests required to attend the Clairefontaine academy, but was not selected following failure of the final test. As a result, he moved to Paris Saint-Germain spending only a year at the Camp des Loges, the club's training center. Belfodil attributed only one year there primarily due to not focusing on his studies and not receiving enough playing time with his youth section. In 2004, he joined AC Boulogne Billencourt, a sports club that also trained international players Hatem Ben Arfa and Issiar Dia. In 2007, Belfodil secured a move to Ligue 2 club Clermont Foot.

Belfodil spent only a year at Clermont and, while playing with the club under-16 team, scored nine of the team's first 15 goals in the Championnat National under-16 league becoming the top scorer of the league. His play sparked the interest of several clubs, most notably French club Lyon and English clubs Chelsea and Manchester United. On 13 November 2008, Lyon announced that they had acquired Belfodil and he had signed an aspirant (youth) contract with the club until June 2011.

Lyon

For the duration of the 2008–09 season, Belfodil played on the club's under-18 team. He was a member of the team that reached the 2008–09 Coupe Gambardella semi-finals appearing in six matches scoring two goals. Belfodil also made one appearance on the club's Championnat de France amateur team. In just the third week of the 2009–10 season, he was

This page also has a version in other languages :  Исхак Бельфодиль (russian)