Ramy Bensebaini

After a brief delay, Ramy Bensebaini has arrived in Dortmund. The defender has been under contract since July 2023. He is strong in the tackle, hard-working, technically skilled and good at shooting, so he has everything a coach wants, including tactical flexibility. The Algerian is a no-nonsense guy. He generally wins six out of ten duels. In 2023/24, it was 62 percent, and an impressive 59 percent the following year. He is strong in the tackle, but fair, giving away just 12 fouls in 2023/24. Its technical ability stands out in particular, especially when it comes to receiving high balls and bringing them under his spell. Bensebaini isn’t known for his pinpoint crosses, and is not a typical wing-back who runs up and down the line, pinging balls from the wing to the middle. Instead, he chooses just the right time to go forward and likes to link up with his teammates. In 2024/25, he was involved in ten goals across all competition, including scoring 3 goals.

Ramy Bensebaini was born and raised in the eastern city of Constantine, which has around 450,000 inhabitants, making it the third largest metropolis in the country after Algiers and Oran. At the age of 12, he moved to the Academy of Paradou AC in the capital city of Algiers. There, they put great emphasis on making good use of the ball and used what some European clubs might consider unconventional methods: the boys trained and played barefoot – and without goalkeepers! At 19, Ramy moved to Lierse SK in Belgium, followed by spells at SC Montpellier and Stade Rennes in France, where he won the cup competition, even beating Paris Saint-Germain in the final in 2019. Bensebaini even scored for Rennes in the penalty shoot-out. Previously, he had scored the winner in the semi-final against Olympique Lyon. From 2019 to 2023, he spent his first four years in the Bundesliga with Borussia Mönchengladbach (95 games, 19 goals, nine assists).

Since his debut in January 2017, Ramy Bensebaini has been an integral part of the Algerian national team. “That's something I'm really proud of. Since I started playing football, it has always been a goal for me to join the national team, and I have worked hard for that,” he told BORUSSIA members’ magazine (February 2025 issue). So far, the highlight was winning the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019. “That is a memory that will stay with me forever. We were really almost invincible at that tournament. We came there to play football. And we knew from the start that we would win.”