Omar Sahnoun

Omar Sahnoun
Personal information
Date of birthAugust 18, 1955
Place of birthGuerrouma, Algeria
Date of deathMay 21, 1980 (aged 24)
Place of deathBordeaux, France
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing positionMidfielder
Youth career
1967–1972Beauvais
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1972–1979Nantes105(21)
1979–1980Bordeaux32(5)
National team
1977–1978France6(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Omar Sahnoun (Arabic: عمر سحنون‎; born 18 August 1955 in Guerrouma, Algeria – died 21 May 1980 in Bordeaux) was a French professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

Football career

The son of a harki, Sahnoun's Algerian family settled in Beauvais, France in 1962. Ten years later, at only 17, he would make his professional debuts with FC Nantes, under Jean Vincent. A talented offensive player, he played however intermittenly for the club, due to heart problems, only posting two productive seasons in seven years, especially 1976–77, where he scored 15 times in 32 matches, as the Pays de la Loire club won the fourth Ligue 1 title in its history.

Sahnoun played six times for the French national team, his debut coming on 23 February 1977 in a friendly with West Germany, in Paris. At the end of the year, he suffered a cardiac alert which cause him to put his career on hold for a few months; subsequently, he would not make the list for the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina.

After having returned to active, Sahnoun played one year for FC Girondins de Bordeaux, being regularly used in a team that finished in sixth position. On May 21, 1980, three months shy of his 25th birthday, during club training, he died from a heart attack.

Honours

Personal

Sahnoun's son, Nicolas, was also a footballer, and a midfielder. He too played for Bordeaux during his professional career, but also represented several other clubs both at home and abroad.

References