Rayan Ait-Nouri on importance of Muslim faith, pride in playing for Algeria and trying to stop Mohamed Salah

Wolves defender has come a long way from street footballer in Paris to Premier League and international star

A wall of honour at Wolverhampton Wanderers' training ground lists all the players with more than 100 games for the club.

There are the greats of the 1950s including club legend Billy Wright who captained the team to three English top-flight titles. There's Steve Bull, a bona-fide goal machine of the 80s and 90s. Then a distinctly Portuguese flavour to more recent additions. But in among the Rubens, Ruis and Rauls, the Diogos, Joaos and Pedros is the name Rayan Ait-Nouri.

The Paris-born Algeria international may only be 23, but he’s in his fifth season as a Premier League regular with over 140 Wolves games to his name and counting.

Ait-Nouri played all 38 Premier League games last season and has started all but one this term following a one-match ban after a sending off against Ipswich Town.

That December defeat, which left Wolves 19th in the 20-team Premier League, saw coach Gary O’Neil dismissed and a furious Ait-Nouri ushered off by a teammate, the low point in a season which has since improved.

That game aside, Ait-Nouri is an otherwise stable influence at a club under five different managers since he broke into the first team following a loan move from Ligue 1 side Angers in 2020.

He impressed so much that when Wolves decided to make the deal permanent, French giants Paris Saint-Germain attempted to hijack the deal.

It was Wolves who got their man though, signing Ait-Nouri for a fee of £9.8 million on a five-year deal, helped by the fact that Jorge Mendes, with his connections to Wolves, was Ait-Nouri’s agent.

Wolves have endured a tough season with only five wins from 24 league games so far, but form has improved under new manager Vitor Pereira and three of the wins have come in the last eight games.

Ait-Nouri’s role has shifted from left-back to wing-back under Pereira, his skills better suited in attack rather than defending.

Wolves have managed only four clean sheets all season and despite the fact they sit two points above the relegation zone, the mood feels positive.

“I grew up in France outside Paris, close to Vincennes, with my family – my mother, my two sisters and my brother,” Ait-Nouri, who is of North African heritage, told The National.

“I played football from when I was very young in the street with my friends. Happy moments and memories. I liked to watch Real Madrid when I was young with Cristiano Ronaldo, Marcelo and Sergio Ramos. I followed Madrid in all those Champions League finals.

“My parents are from Algeria. They came to France in their early 20s and met in France. Mother was a cleaner; dad worked at Orly Airport on the runways.

“There’s a big Algerian population in France, maybe the biggest outside Algeria. And we can see many footballers; Zinedine Zidane’s parents are Algerian, [Karim] Benzema, [Riyad] Mahrez … My story is similar to his, I grew up in France and play for Algeria”.

Ait-Nouri made his national team debut in 2023 – having represented France at under 18 and 21 level.

“My parents separated and I stayed with mum,” he explains of his background. “I would see my father one weekend every two weeks. They both pushed me when I was young.

“I was training every day with the first team. It was a good city, small, by the big Loire River, but a city proud to have a football team in the top division. And life there doesn’t have the stress of Paris”.

No city on earth produces as many top footballers as Paris where youth football is well organised, well coached and standards are high.

“My mum pushed me in school, my dad in football. But I didn’t like school and I stopped school early because I signed a first professional football contract at Angers when I was 16 years old."

The Parisian working-class areas are a melting pot of culture; French people coming to Paris for a job, immigrants from the old colonies such as Mali or Senegal or in the French Caribbean who started arriving in the 1960s.

In the 90s there were more immigrants from Congo and Zaire. Then there are immigrants with roots in North Africa – Morocco, Tunisia or Algeria, like Ait-Nouri.

This mix produces every type of footballer, big physical players that can do well in England, smaller technical players such as Wissam Ben Yedder, a France international striker of Tunisian descent who thrived in Ligue 1 and La Liga. Yet the best often have to leave the capital to find their way.

Thierry Henry went to Monaco, Antony Martial to Lyon and then Monaco, Patrice Evra to Italy after being missed not only by the Clairefontaine, the national academy outside Paris, but by every professional French club.

“Why Paris produces so many professional footballers? For me, it was street football every day, five v five. My father didn’t mind, my brother told me to study and not play football. But I was free when I played street football, free to express myself,” Ait-Nouri explains.

Ait-Nouri’s game needed more structure and Angers was the perfect step up, a chance to escape the distractions of Paris and learn professional football in a relative backwater, albeit one with a top-flight football team and proud, loyal support.

He joined then from the youth academy of Paris FC, the capital’s now ambitious second club. Ait-Nouri began in Angers’ second team aged only 16, made his first-team debut at 17 and was being watched by several Premier League clubs.

“He was technically excellent,” one Premier League scout who watched him tells The National. “Brilliant left foot, good soft feet in possession and could handle the ball under pressure. Lovely balance and control, so he could always play with his head up. He ran with the ball very well.

“Very attacking. I saw him play for Angers and France U21. Technically he was above his age and French football was too easy for him.

“The only downside when I watched him at Angers was his physique and whether he could cope in the Premier League. He just needed to develop physically, which he did. I think he’ll get better and better.”

Then Wolves pounced and it was time for a step up in levels – and intensity.

“It was like a dream when I first heard that a Premier League club wanted to sign me,” he says. His English is softly-spoken, one of his three languages along with French and Arabic. “I was 19 when my agent told me Wolverhampton were interested.

“The level in the Premier League is higher than Ligue 1 – which is already high.

“It’s more intense in England, more physical, more attacks and defence, it never stops. As a player in my position that means more runs, less time to recover. Sometimes in France when you have the ball, the game is static.”

It wasn’t only the football which changed, but living in England. “My big brother lives with me,” he says. “He pushes me all the time. Like the fans.

“The Wolves fans are close to us, the people feel like a family. I am one of the players who has played the most games in this team so I know it all well.

“I like England. I don’t like the food compared to French or Arabic food – couscous, tagine. And I’ve not tried the fish and chips, I’m a footballer!”

International honours soon followed for a country he first visited when very young. “We would go for holidays and see my grandmother and my cousins,” added Ait-Nouri.

“I always had good sensations being in Algeria and I still have them now that I play for my country. It’s my chance to make the people happy in a country which made me happy.

“My family were so proud when I first played for Algeria. My father was in the stadium – we played Niger. They played the national anthem; he was very emotional. I hadn’t learnt it then because I grew up in France, but it was an incredible experience.”

Ait-Nouri was initially reluctant to do this interview. He didn’t think his English was good enough. It is.

“I can understand everything but sometimes to speak I forget some words,” he laughs. “I try to do my best.

“I have improved in four years and the players teach me new words like ‘lads’. I didn’t know this word before. I’m actually shy. I don’t like to speak a lot, but I think I’m a good guy who tries to do my best. My religion asks this of me, to help others.”

Ait-Nouri says his Muslim faith means “everything to me” and “comes before everything”.

“I practice my religion every day by praying and saying thank you to God who gives me everything I have,” he added.

The holy month of Ramadan is fast approaching, and Ait-Nouri says the practice of fasting is demanding on a top-level athlete's body.

“As a footballer, Ramadan is very hard when you are fasting and playing, but I have to do this. It’s difficult enough to play against the best players when you are not fasting, even more when you are.

“I try to drink a lot of water and eat in the night. And I try to speak to the other players who are fasting so that we can support each other.”

It’s unsurprising that a well-known fellow North African is his toughest opponent: “Mo Salah is very difficult to play against. He’s strong, he runs all the time, scores all the time, he assists. You need complete focus.”

Wolves fans will tell you that Ait-Nouri always does well against the Egyptian superstar. In one game he kept the Liverpool striker quiet for 89 minutes, then Ait-Nouri went off with cramp and Wolves conceded straight away through Salah.

There is another inspiration from closer to home. “I didn’t play against Riyad Mahrez when he was at Leicester but it was amazing to watch him when they won the league,” said Ait-Nouri.

“It showed that an Algerian player could win things in the biggest league. Riyad is the best player of Algeria of all time, the captain of our national team and he tries to help the young players.”

Algeria's Riyad Mahrez lifts the trophy after winning the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Reuters

“The national team footballers are famous in Algeria,” Ait-Nouri added. “The fans support us home and away. If we play in South Africa for example, there will be Algeria supporters.

“It’s a strong team but we have strong rivals in North Africa and I wonder why this is. Maybe it’s because we are all playing street football from a very young age. So the North African is technically good.

“The football is different there to Europe. It’s more physical, the weather is often a lot hotter. Sometimes the pitches are very different to Europe, but I like the different experiences.

“I like to travel to the different countries in Africa and that my life as a footballer is taking me there.”

There are big games approaching, for club and country, while Ait-Nouri has one eye on the Africa Cup of Nations to be held in Morocco at the end of the year.

Algeria were last champions in 2019. Their leading striker, Amine Gouiri, left joined Marseille from Rennes in the winter transfer window in a €22m deal. Mahrez, 33, is captain with 98 appearances, Ait-Nouri is a decade younger with 15.

Algeria have a top side and were seeded in the first pot for the 2025 Afcon. Morocco, the hosts, are favourites.

“We are little bit rivals with Morocco,” Aït-Nouri says with a smile.

“A little bit? It’s like Wolves v West Brom?” counters The National, picking out the hottest derby game in the area where Ait-Nouri now lives.

“But we are brothers [with Morocco],” he laughs. “It will be good there [for the Cup of Nations]. The atmosphere will be crazy. It’s a beautiful country.”

Before that, Wolves need to stay in the Premier League. They currently sit just one place above the relegation zone have ended a four-game losing streak by defeating another Midlands rival Aston Villa in their last match.

“I am confident that we can stay up,” he says. “Every moment is an experience for me here and I just love being here.

“We have good players like [Brazilian forward] Matheus Cunha, I really enjoy playing with him. He loves this team and we are happy for him to be with us.

“He is a good colleague, a special talent and a very good player. We know the Premier League is very hard. Very hard. But we are Wolves and we will fight until the end.”