Janni-Luca Serra (born 13 March 1998) is a German professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for 2. Bundesliga club

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

Career

Early career

Janni-Luca Serra was born in

Springe Springe is a town in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated near the Deister hills, southwest of Hanover. Town structure * Springe (core settlement, seat of the mayor), population 13,184 * Bennigsen, population 4, ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, and began playing soccer in the youth teams of SG Bredenbeck-Holtensen, where he is still an honorary member. Initially playing as a defender, he moved to the youth department of

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

at the age of 10, where he trained for a total of three years, interrupted by a move to

TSV Havelse TSV Havelse is a German association football club based in Garbsen, Lower Saxony, near Hanover. History The club was founded in 1912 as ''FC Pelikan-Havelse'' by a group of thirteen young men from the small village of Havelse. They took their ...

. As a 16-year-old, he was signed by

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

to play for the club's youth teams. After winning one championship with the under-17s and two with the under-19s, Serra made his debut for

Borussia Dortmund II Borussia Dortmund II are the reserve team of Borussia Dortmund. They play in the 3. Liga, at Stadion Rote Erde. Until 2005, the team played as Borussia Dortmund Amateure. History From Kreisliga to Oberliga (Until 1997) The second team of Boruss ...

on 30 July 2017, in a home game against

Rot-Weiss Essen Rot-Weiss Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club currently plays in the 3. Liga, at the Stadion an der Hafenstraße. The team won the DFB-Pokal in 1953, and the German championship in 195 ...

in the

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German semi-professional football division administered by the Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. Being the single flight of the Western ...

. During his time at Dortmund II, he also began to eventually establish himself as a striker. During the winter break of the 2017–18 season, BVB loaned him to 2. Bundesliga club

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seas ...

, where he gained experience in professional football in twelve brief appearances.

Holstein Kiel

For the 2018–19 season, Serra moved permanently to the 2. Bundesliga, joining newly promoted club

Holstein Kiel Kieler Sportvereinigung Holstein von 1900 e.V., simply as KSV Holstein or Kieler SV Holstein, commonly known as Holstein Kiel (), is a German association football and sports club based in the city of Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein. From the 1900s thro ...

on a three-year contract until 2021. Under coach

Tim Walter Tim Laszlo Walter (born 8 November 1975) is a German football coach, who coaches Hamburger SV. Coaching career In June 2019, Walter became the new head coach of VfB Stuttgart. He was sacked on 23 December 2019. He was named the new head coach o ...

, Serra became a regular starter right away, making 30 league appearances in his first season (25 of which were starting appearances). He also played in all three cup matches. He scored his first goal in professional football on 22 September 2018, with a last minute header in a 2–2 draw against his former club VfL Bochum. With a total of 11 goals, he was the team's top scorer of the season. He retained his place in the starting XI in the following season under new head coach Ole Werner, scoring a total of eight goals in 19 league games and two cup appearances until February 2020. However, a thigh injury kept him out of play until the end of the season, which Kiel finished in 11th place. In the 2020/21 season, Serra was once again part of the first team. The striker appeared in 31 league games (25 times as starter) in which he scored 13 goals. He finished the season in third place with his team and thus qualified for the promotion playoffs, which were lost to 1. FC Köln. In the

2020–21 DFB-Pokal The 2020–21 DFB-Pokal was the 78th season of the annual German football cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. The competition began on 11 Se ...

, he advanced to the semifinals with Kiel, where the team lost to his youth club

. Serra appeared in all five cup games, scoring three goals.

Arminia Bielefeld

After fulfilling his contract with Holstein Kiel, Serra moved to

club

for the 2021–22 season. His contract is dated until June 30, 2025. On the first matchday of the season, he made his Bundesliga debut in a goalless draw against

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

. He scored his first goal in the top flight on 18 December 2021 in a 2-0 away win against

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig, and colloquially referred to as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company Red Bu ...

International career

Janni Serra has made 31 appearances for four different DFB junior national teams so far, including ten for the German under-17s (with whom he finished second at the 2015 European Championship) and four for the under-19s. On 21 July 2016, he tore his ACL during a match at the

2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship The 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 15th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship (65th edition if the Under-18 and Junior eras are included), the annual European international youth football championship contested by the ...

and underwent a total of four surgeries during the remainder of 2016. He made his comeback on the pitch in April 2017 in the Under-19 Bundesliga. On 1 September 2017, Serra made his first appearance for a men's national team, playing in the German under-21 national team coached by

Stefan Kuntz Stefan Kuntz (born 30 October 1962) is a German professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as a Forward (association football), striker. He is the head coach of the Turkey national ...

against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

Personal life

Serra has an older brother (Nikola) and a younger brother (Petja), both of whom are also soccer players. His late father Ralf also used to play low-level soccer and worked for the

Lower Saxony Football Association The Lower Saxony Football Association (german: Niedersächsischer Fussball-Verband), the ''NFV'', is one of 21 state organisations of the German Football Association, the ''DFB'', and covers the state of Lower Saxony.

as a coach. Serra is of distant

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

n descent.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Serra, Janni 1998 births Living people People from Hanover Region Footballers from Lower Saxony German footballers Germany youth international footballers Germany under-21 international footballers German people of Italian descent Association football forwards Borussia Dortmund II players VfL Bochum players Holstein Kiel players Arminia Bielefeld players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Regionalliga players