Sonia Ouchene
Sonia Ouchene Salón is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Première Ligue club Montpellier. Born in Spain, she has represented France at the youth national level. Ouchene has previously played for [Stade de Stade de Reims Féminines|Reims Féminines|Reims] and Spanish club Valencia B.
Early life
Ouchene was born in Valencia, Spain, to a Spanish mother and a French father. She grew up in the nearby town of Paterna alongside her parents and two siblings. Ouchene began playing football at the age of 7 before moving to Paris at 15 to enroll in the INSEP academy. While plying her trade at INSEP, Ouchene also spent a three-year stint with Division 2 Féminine side Reims. In 2018, she returned to Spain to play one campaign for Valencia CF's reserve team. Ouchene scored 13 goals in 25 matches to help Valencia claim a regional title in the Spanish second division.College career
In 2019, Ouchene moved overseas and played one season of American college soccer with the Tennessee Volunteers. She made her collegiate debut on 22 August 2019, playing 52 minutes in a match against Fordham. She recorded her first goal for the Volunteers in a 3–1 victory over Cincinnati on September 8. The following match, Ouchene scored directly from a free kick to open the scoring in a draw with Massachusetts. She went on to accumulate a total of 17 appearances for the Volunteers, starting in all but 2. Despite having previously planned on staying in Tennessee for four years, Ouchene chose to head back home to Europe after only five months in the United States. She cited a lack of enjoyment with the direct and physical style of play in college as the main reason for her early exit.Club career
Reims
Ouchene re-joined her former club Reims in January 2020. Since Ouchene's departure from the club two years prior, Reims had managed to earn promotion to the French top-flight and had already completed half of its first season in the Division 1 Féminine. Ouchene made 4 appearances for the team before operations halted in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She spent the remainder of quarantine in Valencia with her family members.In her first full season with Reims, Ouchene registered 22 appearances and a career-high 19 starts. She also scored four goals, three of which came in an October 2020 hat-trick over Issy. On 25 February 2021, she inked a new deal with the club to keep her with the club an additional two years. Once Ouchene's contract expired in June 2023, she departed from the club. Counting both of her three-year stints with Reims, she had spent six seasons with the club and participated in 132 total games.