Ismaël Bennacer

Ismaël Bennacer is an Algerian professional footballer, born in Arles, France, on 1 December 1997 to a Moroccan father and an Algerian mother. A defensive midfielder, he came through at Arles and Arsenal, made his name at Empoli, and spent his peak years at AC Milan, winning Serie A in 2022. For Algeria he has played more than fifty times, won the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and was named that tournament's best player. ^{1 2 3}

Bennacer started at his hometown club Arles before joining Arsenal's academy in 2015; after a loan at Tours he moved to Empoli in 2017, winning Serie B and then impressing in Serie A even as Empoli went down. Milan signed him in August 2019, and he became a fixture of the side that won the league title in May 2022; he later spent loan spells at Marseille and Dinamo Zagreb before joining Qatar's Al-Gharafa in 2026. ¹

He represented France at youth level, then switched to Algeria in July 2016 and debuted that September. At the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations he was named Player of the Tournament and set up the winning goal in the final. ¹

The English article's personal-life section states that Bennacer is a Muslim and reports his observance of the Ramadan fast while at Milan; the Arabic article has no religion field and says nothing about his religion, and Wikidata carries no religion value for him. No source names a school. ^{1 2 3}