Rayan Cherki
Active- Current or last club
- Manchester City
- Country (nationality)
- France
- League or competition
- Premier League
- Position
- Attacking midfielder * winger
- How is the religion known?
- Reported by reputable media
- Last checked
- 9 October 2026
We list a player’s religion only where they have spoken about it publicly or it has been reliably reported, and we link our sources. If something is wrong, or a player’s views have changed, please tell us and we will review it.
Table of Contents
What religion is Rayan Cherki?
Rayan Cherki is a French professional footballer who is a practicing Muslim. While he generally maintains a private personal life, his commitment to his religious beliefs remains a prominent aspect of his identity off the football pitch.
Throughout his professional career, Cherki has consistently balanced the physical demands of top-tier football with his spiritual obligations. He regularly observes the holy month of Ramadan, participating in the traditional fast from dawn until dusk alongside his family. His faith has been visibly documented during Premier League matches, where play has been paused to allow him and fellow Muslim teammates to break their fast at sunset.
Beyond his personal devotion, Cherki actively engages in Islamic community initiatives, which includes spending time volunteering at a local mosque to help distribute food parcels to those in need. His spiritual values heavily influence his worldview, and he has previously acknowledged that playing in a Muslim country remains a meaningful consideration for the long-term outlook of his football career.
Rayan Cherki serves as an attacking midfielder for both the Premier League’s Manchester City and the French national team. With City, he has won the FA Cup and Carabao Cup. Additionally, Cherki represented France at the 2025 Nations League semi-finals and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Salary & Contract
Rayan Cherki’s current contract with Manchester City is a five-year agreement signed in June 2025. The deal is valued at a total of £46.8 million, which breaks down to an estimated gross fixed salary of £9.36 million per season. This financial structure translates to weekly base wages of approximately £180,000 before performance-related bonuses. The contract secures his stay at the Etihad Stadium until June 30, 2030, at which point he is scheduled to reach unrestricted free agency.
Early life
Mathis Rayan Cherki was born on 17 August 2003 in Lyon, France, to an Algerian mother, Abla Cherki, and a father of Algerian-Jewish and Italian descent, Fabrice Amsellem. He began playing organized youth football with local club AS Saint-Priest in 2009 before he joined the prestigious Olympique Lyonnais Academy just a year later in 2010.
During the 2018–19 UEFA Youth League, he scored a goal against Manchester City’s under-19 team to become the youngest-ever scorer in UEFA’s flagship youth tournament at 15 years and 33 days old.
Club career
Cherki signed his first professional contract with Lyon in July 2019, aged 15. Three months later, in October, he made his senior debut for the club in a 0-0 draw against Dijon in Ligue 1 and became the second-youngest debutant in Lyon’s history at 16 years and 63 days. In January 2020, Cherki scored his first senior goal in a 7–0 Coupe de France win over Bourg-en-Bresse, becoming Lyon’s youngest ever goalscorer at the age of 16 years and 140 days. His final campaign with the club was the 2024-25 season, where he scored 12 goals and registered 18 assists in 44 appearances across all competitions before making the switch to Manchester City.
Manchester City
Cherki completed a transfer to Manchester City on June 10, 2025. He signed a five-year contract for a reported £34 million transfer fee. Just 12 days after his signing was officially announced, he made his competitive debut and scored his first goal for the club as a late substitute in a 6–0 FIFA Club World Cup group-stage victory against Al Ain in Atlanta. He subsequently integrated into the squad for the domestic campaign and made his Premier League debut later that August.
Across his debut 2025–26 season in English football, Cherki went on to make 33 Premier League appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side. Operating primarily as an attacking playmaker, he recorded four goals and 12 assists in league play to help Manchester City secure a top-four finish.
International career
Cherki played for France’s youth national teams from the under-16 level to the under-21s and won a silver medal with the under-23 squad at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The following year, on June 5, 2025, he made his senior international debut as a substitute, where he scored and assisted in a 5–4 loss against Spain in the Nations League semi-finals. He earned his first senior international start four days later in a 2-0 win over Germany in the Nations League third-place play-off.
Cherki was subsequently selected for France’s 26-man squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The national team advanced through the tournament to reach the semifinals, where they suffered a 2–0 elimination against eventual champion Spain. France concluded their tournament run by finishing fourth following a 6–4 defeat against England in the third-place playoff match.
Personal life
Through his paternal lineage, Cherki holds Algerian-Jewish and Italian roots with family origins tied to Bari, Italy. Because of this, he held dual eligibility to play for both Algeria and Italy at the international level but he ultimately chose to commit his senior career to France.
