French professional footballer (born 1993)

Abdel Slem Billel Omrani (Arabic: عبد السلام بلال عمراني; born 2 June 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for Liga I club CFR Cluj.

A product of the Marseille academy, Omrani made his Ligue 1 debut for the club in 2011. He am*ed ten games for the first team and had a loan stint at Arles-Avignon, before moving to Romania with CFR Cluj in 2016. In the latter country, he won seven domestic trophies and was named the league's Foreign Player of the Year in 2019.

Of Algerian descent, Omrani has represented France internationally at under-17, under-18 and under-19 levels.

Contents

• 1 Club career
  • 1.1 Early career / Marseille
  • 1.2 CFR Cluj
• 2 International career
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Career statistics
  • 4.1 Club
• 5 Honours
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Club career

Early career / Marseille

Omrani joined the youth system of Marseille in 2007, after spells with two amateur clubs in the Moselle area. On 19 March 2011, he agreed to a three-year professional contract with the Stade Vélodrome side.

Omrani was subsequently promoted to the senior squad by manager Didier Deschamps for the 2011–12 season, being *igned the number 25 shirt. He made his professional by coming on as an 83rd-minute subs*ute for Alou Diarra in a 1–1 Ligue 1 draw with Brest, on 2 October 2011.

CFR Cluj

Omrani moved abroad for the first time in September 2016 after signing a contract with Romanian team CFR Cluj. He recorded his first goal on the 17th that month, in a 5–0 Liga I thrashing of Voluntari.

Omrani totalled nine goals from 31 appearances in all compe*ions during the following season, as "the White and Burgundies" won the national championship. On 8 July 2018, amid rumours regarding a transfer to fellow league club FCSB, CFR announced that he penned down a three-year contract extension. Six days later, Omrani obtained the penalty kick from which Emmanuel Culio scored the only goal of the 2018 Supercupa României win over Universitatea Craiova.

In 2019, Omrani was linked with a move to Celtic after scoring against them in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, but nothing came of it. That year, he was handed the Foreign Player of the Year award by the Gazeta Sporturilor daily.

International career

Omrani is a former France youth international, having represented the country at under-17 and under-18 levels. With the under-17 side, he played at the 2010 UEFA European Championship.

Omrani is also eligible to represent Algeria, and in October 2011 was called up to the under-23 team to participate in the friendly matches ahead of the 2011 CAF Championship. However, the report of the call-up was deemed erroneous due to a misunderstanding between the team's coach and the Algerian media; the latter *umed the coach was calling up Omrani, when he was in fact calling up another French-born player of Algerian origin who also played for Marseille.

In February 2013, Omrani was invited by the Algeria under-20 national team coach Jean-Marc Nobilo to be a member of the squad for the 2013 African Championship, but declined the offer. On 27 May 2022, he was unable to join up with the Algeria senior team after reportedly finding out that his p*port had expired.

Personal life

Omrani's elder brother Abdelhakim also played professional football in Romania for Dunărea Călărași, and his elder sister Yasmina is an international heptathlete.

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 15 May 2022

Honours

Marseille

• Coupe de la Ligue: 2011–12
• Trophée des Champions: 2011

Marseille B

• CFA 2 — Group Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur-Corsica: 2012–13

CFR Cluj

• Liga I: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22
• Supercupa României: 2018, 2020; runner-up: 2021

Individual

• Gazeta Sporturilor Foreign Player of the Year in Romania: 2019

References

External links

• Billel Omrani at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian) and StatisticsFootball.com
• Billel Omrani – French league stats at LFP – also available in French
• Billel Omrani at L'Équipe Football (in French)
• Marseille official profile (in French)
• Billel Omrani – UEFA compe*ion record (archive)