Mohamed Belloumi has been Hull City‘s best player and is playing the best football of his career.
While many players can struggle with the difficult leap from the Championship to the Premier League, this has certainly not been the case for the Algerian winger.
Belloumi currently leads the Tigers both in goals (3) and assists (2, alongside Oli McBurnie). But he is also doing all the other things any manager would want from a wide midfielder.
And the fact that he is showing his best version in the biggest and most challenging of stages, the English top flight, is highly surprising. Which is why we’ve decided to go back and analyse his Hull City trajectory so far.
How far has Mohamed Belloumi come at Hull City?
Rise and fall
Hull City signed Belloumi back in August 2024 from Portuguese side Farense. His first full season in the Primeira Liga had decent numbers for a young winger, but nothing too outstanding.
He scored 7 goals and dished out 4 assists in 33 games, averaging 0.8 chances created, 0.8 successful take-ons and 1.2 tackles per game.
But the then 22-year-old actually improved his play when arriving in English football. In his first 10 Championship games, Belloumi recorded 2 goals and 2 assists, 2.3 chances created and 1.8 successful take-ons per match. He started every single one of those, averaging 82 minutes per game as well.
But an ACL tear in November 2024 ended his promising start and kept him out of action until August 2025. He saw players like Joe Gelhardt and Kyle Joseph move ahead of him in the pecking order and had to settle for a bench role in 2025/26, the Tigers’ promotion-winning campaign.
Belloumi still showed his quality in a diminished part. He played in just 25 of their 49 matches (including playoffs), starting only 10 of them. But he still managed to score 3 goals and 4 assists while averaging 1.9 chances created, 2.5 successful take-ons and 2.0 tackles per game.
Corner turned
After such bad luck with the ACL tear, it was precisely an injury issue that brought him back to life in the playoffs last season. Joseph turned his ankle in the second leg of the semi finals, away at Millwall, in stoppage time of the first half.
Sergej Jakirovic went with Belloumi – even ahead of Gelhardt, who was also recovering from an injury. And that basically saved their season.
The Algerian changed what was an even, goalless game at half time, and had a direct hand in both of the Tigers’ two second-half goals to send them to Wembley. He scored the first with a beautiful curling effort from the right-hand side and then assisted Gelhardt in a fast break he started himself to seal the deal in the 79th minute.
That’s how he won his place back in the starting XI and has not looked back since.
Ressurgence in the Premier League
But even the most optimistic Hull fan would not have imagined how good his start to life in the Premier League would be.
The 24-year-old is averaging more goals + assists per 90 minutes (0.65) than in any other league season of his career. His creative returns have fallen a bit (1.0 chances created), but the duelling ones are through the roof.
Belloumi is pure energy in the right flank, with a polished enough game to drift inside and play in central areas rather than just being a touchline-hugging winger.
He is a perfect fit with how Jakirovic wants the Tigers to play, being able to run up and down the wing, track back and end opponent possessions, start and even finish sequences for his side. And that’s with a lot of technique, skill and dribbling in between.
His great form to start the Premier League season has also gotten him into the Algeria national team for the first time. He made his debut for his country in the Semptember-October international break and scored two goals in three games already.
Hull are currently 11th in the table, enduring an eight-game winless run. They could rediscover their good form from the earlier parts of the season or end up relegated. But regardless of the outcome, Mohamed Belloumi may not be at MKM Stadium for much longer if he carries his current form.