Warmed Omari is a centre-back who joined Olympique Lyonnais on a season-long loan from Rennes in August 2024. He was brought in on the final day of the transfer window to provide defensive cover in the wake of the departures of Mamadou Sarr, Sinaly Diomandé, Adryelson and Dejan Lovren, which left the squad depleted in that department.
As expected, Omari’s opportunities for first team action at Lyon have been limited, with Moussa Niakhaté, Duje Ćaleta-Car and Clinton Mata preferred to him for a starting role. He had to wait until the trip to Le Havre in October to make his debut, and that was only as an 83rd minute substitute for Corentin Tolisso. At the time of writing, those remain his only Ligue 1 minutes for Lyon.
Omari’s first starts for Lyon came in the UEFA Europa League in November when he played the full ninety minutes in both the away draw at Hoffenheim and the 4-1 win at Qarabag. His only other appearance to date came in the ignominious Coupe de France exit to Bourgoin-Jallieu in January when he played the full ninety plus extra time. Other than that, he has remained on the bench ready to deputise should the first choice defenders become unavailable.
From Mayotte to Brittany via Dijon
Omari was born in the commune of Bandraboua, on the northern coast of the island of Mayotte, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean. It is situated approximately half way between Madagascar and the Mozambique coast, at the south-eastern end of the Comoros Islands archipelago. He is eligible to represent the Comoros via his parents, as well as France in international football and has recently pledged his future to the Comoros, having previously played at U-21 level for Les Bleus.
Having moved to the French mainland in his early years, Omari began playing youth football for a club in Les Grésilles, a suburb of Dijon. At around the age of ten, he moved once more, this time to Brittany in the west of France. There he joined the junior ranks of local club US Saint Méen-Saint Onen and moved on a couple of years later to TA Rennes, a multi-sports club in the nearby Breton capital.
Through the ranks at Rennes
By now he was on the radar of scouts from local giants Stade Rennais and they duly signed him up to their academy in 2014. He progressed steadily through the age groups and made his debut for the Rennes B team playing in the National 3 Brittany Division (at the fifth tier of the French football pyramid) in October 2018. He made only two appearances for the B team that season, but both resulted in clean sheets and he also turned out for the U-19 team a couple of times in the post-season championship play-offs as they lifted the national U-19 title with a 4-0 thumping of Montpellier in the final.
That triumph qualified Rennes for the 2019-20 UEFA Youth League and Warmed Omari was by now an integral part of their defence as they eliminated Serbian outfit FK Brodarac in the first round. He even captained the team in the second round second leg against Maccabi Petah Tikva as Rennes eased past the Israelis with a clean sheet 3-0 on aggregate. They beat Club Brugge on penalties in the next round, but eventually fell to Internazionale in the last sixteen.
Omari had also become a regular in the Rennes B team for the 2019-20 season and they were handily placed at 5th in the National 3 Brittany table when the season was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Like footballers everywhere, he was forced into several months of inactivity. However, he had the consolation of signing his first professional contract with Rennes in June 2020.
Breakthrough season
Despite his new ‘pro’ status, Omari had to bide his time for first team opportunities and the 2020-21 season afforded him a meagre three appearances in the matchday squad with no playing time, and just three games for the B team. 2021-22 was destined to be his breakthrough season as, at twenty-one years old, he finally made the step up to the Rennes senior team.
Former Lyon manager Bruno Génésio was the coach who handed Warmed Omari his opportunity at Rennes, and boy did he take it! He made his debut as a late substitute in a 1-1 draw at Brest in the second Ligue 1 game of the season and his first start came on matchday five in a 0-2 defeat to Reims. From there on he was virtually ever present in the starting eleven, helping Rennes to a fourth placed finish in Ligue 1. He also made his European debut, featuring regularly in a UEFA Conference League campaign the ended with defeat to Leicester City at the last sixteen stage.
During the course of that 2021-22 season, Omari notched up his first ever goal in professional football. His 21st minute strike in the Coupe de France fifth round Breton derby clash against Lorient proved to the the matchwinner. Another landmark moment was his first call-up to the France U-21 squad, which came in March 2022. He made his debut in a European U-21 Championship qualifier against the Faroe Islands at the Stade de l’Épopée in Calais, helping to keep a clean sheet in a 2-0 victory. His second cap came four days later in a 5-0 friendly win against Northern Ireland at the same venue.
Injury setback and comeback
Unfortunately for Warmed Omari, he missed the first half of the 2022-23 campaign with a sports hernia injury. His season didn’t really get going until February, but he regained his starting place in the Rennes first team for the remainder of the season and helped them to a fifth placed finish in Ligue 1, making sixteen appearances plus another couple in the Europa League.
Last season (2023-24) was an improvement on a personal level as he put his injury problems behind him and managed twenty-five Ligue 1 appearances, although Rennes finished a disappointing 10th. He picked up a couple of one-match suspensions during the course of the season, the first for a red card and the second for accumulated yellow cards. Coincidentally, those bans kept him out of both fixtures against Lyon, so his future employers didn’t get a chance to look at him in the flesh.
Omari also featured regularly in Rennes’ Europa League campaign that was brought to a halt by AC Milan in the first knockout round and he was ever-present in their run to the Coupe de France semi-finals, where they were narrowly beaten by PSG. That takes us up to the summer of 2024 and his loan move to Lyon, who also secured the option to purchase him for €10 million should they wish to do so in summer 2025.
At the moment, it seems doubtful that Lyon will choose to trigger that option given their parlous financial state and the lack of first team opportunities for Omari thus far, so he may find himself back at Rennes in June. One thing that has turned out well for him this season is his international career. He pledged his allegiance to the Comoros and played in every match of their Africa Cup of Nations qualification campaign. They went through Group A unbeaten to top the group and earn a place in the finals for only the second time in their history, so he’ll be looking forward to lining up for ‘Les Coelacantes‘ in Morocco next December.