El Arbi Hillel Soudani

El Arbi Hillel Soudani is a forward of Dinamo Zagreb. He was born on 25 November 1987 in Chlef, Algeria.

In 1998 Soudani entered the academy of ASO Chlef. Initially he was sent to the youngest squad of the academy where he spent some time before moving to other teams of the academy. During eight years, from 1998 to 2006, Soudani was a product of this youth academy where he finally got ready to start his football career at a professional level.

In 2006 the young forward officially joined ASO Chlef on a professional contract. Having started to train with the first team, Soudani drew the attention of the head coach who decided to include the forward in the starting eleven in several matches of the club. The footballer made quite a good debut; however he needed time to gain the experience of playing football professionally which, of course, helped him to cement a starting XI position. As a result, hard work during training sessions earned him a place in the starting line-up where he had kicked 48 goals in 108 matches by the summer 2011.

In the summer 2011 the Portuguese side Vitória Guimarães offered the Algerian club ASO Chlef to buy the forward. Soon the parties reached the agreement about Soudani’s transfer to Vitória, and in June 2011 the footballer completed a deal with the Portuguese club. Soudani made 37 appearances for his new club netting 13 goals before completing a move to Dinamo Zagreb in the summer 2013.

From 2008 to 2011 Soudani played for the Algeria A’ national team where he featured in 11 games and kicked 3 goals. In 2011 the footballer was selected, for the first time, to the Algerian national football team. Since 2011 he has scored 8 goals in 15 matches for the senior side.