Jean Michaël Seri (born 19 July 1991) is an Ivorian 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 ...

who plays as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for EFL Championship club

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

and the Ivory Coast national team.

Club career

Early career in the Ivory Coast

In his native Ivory Coast, the young Seri was nicknamed "Galla", because he tried to emulate the former

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and

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

midfielder Marcelo Gallardo, whose technical skills he admired. Seri joined the Ivorian football academy that was opened in 2001 by the Ivorian footballer Cyril Domoraud. "Jean is gifted, intelligent and respectful," Domoraud said in retrospect. "In his young days, he was one step ahead of the others, thanks to his ball control." Born in the south-western city of Grand-Béréby, Seri began his career as a youth player with

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, making it the sixth most populous city p ...

club

Africa Sports d'Abidjan Africa Sports d'Abidjan is an Ivorian multi-sports club founded in 1947 and based in Abidjan. The club fields teams in the sports of track and field, handball, basketball and association football, of these the football team is the most prominen ...

in July 2007. The best clubs in Ivory Coast fought for his services. In January 2010, Seri started his career as a senior player by joining ASEC Mimosas, the most successful club in Ivorian football, where he needed just one season to prove himself and become one of the best players in the country. "He is a great listener, and his state of mind is impeccable," raved Sébastien Desabre, ASEC Mimosas's head coach from October 2010 to October 2012 when Seri was a senior player there, and that quality enabled Seri to make steady progress.

Porto

On 2 November 2012, Seri joined Primeira Liga club

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

on loan, after impressing their scouts. However, there was no place for Seri in the club's first team. He was thus forced to play for the club's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

, scoring once in 19 Segunda Liga matches in the first five months of 2013.

Paços de Ferreira

On 31 August 2013, two months after finishing his loan spell at Porto (the ''Dragões''), Seri joined another Primeira Liga club

Paços de Ferreira Paços de Ferreira () is a city in the Porto District, in the north of Portugal. The population of the city in 2011 was 7491, while its municipality had 56,340 inhabitants, in an area of 70.99 km². Sometimes referred to as the ''Capital do ...

on a permanent basis and on a free transfer by signing a three-year deal. He debuted for the ''Pacenses'' on 14 September 2013 against Benfica in a Primeira Liga 3–1 away loss. On 2 March 2014, he scored a goal in the 54th minute to register his first competitive goal for Paços de Ferreira in a 3–1 Primeira Liga home win over Marítimo to send his side away from the relegation zone. It was at Paços de Ferreira where Seri's magnificent range of passing and ability to dictate the tempo of the game made him a fans' favourite. The club finished in eighth place in the

2014–15 Primeira Liga The 2014–15 Primeira Liga (also known as Liga NOS for sponsorship reasons) was the 81st season of the Primeira Liga, the top professional league for Portuguese association football clubs. It began on 15 August 2014 and concluded on 23 May 2015. ...

, and Ligue 1 club

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

were quick to sign Seri before bigger clubs took notice.

Nice

On 11 June 2015, Seri officially joined Ligue 1 club

for a transfer fee of €1 million. On 27 May 2015, prior to the opening of the transfer window, the club had announced the "very likely" arrival of Seri. On 8 August 2015, Seri made his competitive debut for Nice in their opening match of the 2015–16 Ligue 1 season, playing the entire match in the 2–1 home loss to

. On 27 September 2015, he scored in the 53rd minute to register his first competitive goal for Nice in a 4–1 Ligue 1 away win over Saint-Étienne.

Fulham

In July 2018, Seri joined Fulham on a four-year deal until 2022 with an option for Fulham to extend the contract by a further year. Seri scored his first goal for his new club on 26 August, opening the scoring against

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

with a spectacular strike from outside the area. Seri picked the ball up and took one touch around an oncoming defender before curling in a long-range effort into the top corner of

Joe Hart Charles Joseph John Hart (born 19 April 1987) known professionally simply as Joe Hart is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Scottish Premiership club Celtic. He began his career at his hometown club Shrewsbury T ...

's net and the goal was awarded with the Premier League Goal of the Month for August.

Loan to Galatasaray

On 18 July 2019, Seri joined

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other de ...

on a season-long loan deal, with an option to buy. Eventually, he would leave Galatasaray and return to Fulham at the end of the season.

Loan to Bordeaux

On 30 January 2021, Seri joined Ligue 1 club

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

on loan until the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

Return to Fulham

Following his return from his loan spell at

, Seri began playing again for Fulham starting his first match for the club for the season against

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

, which saw Fulham win 5–1 in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

on 14 August 2021. On 2 May 2022, Seri both featured and scored in a 7–0 victory over

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

, this victory securing the Championship title for Fulham. Despite promotion back to the Premier League, it was announced that Seri would be leaving the club at the end of his contract in June 2022.

Hull City

On 8 July 2022, Seri returned to the Championship to join

on a three-year contract. Seri made his debut on 30 July 2022 in the home match against

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

and scored the winning goal in extra time.

International career

Seri made a total of three appearances for the Ivory Coast under-23 team, all of them at the 2011 CAF U-23 Championship held in Morocco, playing every minute of all their three Group B matches against South Africa, Egypt and Gabon. Ivory Coast finished third in Group B and thus did not qualify for the semifinals. On 27 February 2014, Seri received his first senior international call up for the Ivory Coast in an upcoming

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

; he was an unused substitute in ''The Elephants 2–2 away draw (held on 5 March 2014) against Belgium. On 6 September 2015, Seri made his senior international debut in a 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualification match against

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

, playing the entire match in the 0–0 away draw. Seri played two of Ivory Coast's three

2017 Africa Cup of Nations The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2017 or CAN 2017), known as the Total 2017 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champions ...

Group C matches. They finished third in Group C and thus did not qualify for the quarterfinals. On 17 November 2015, Seri scored a goal in the 64th minute of the

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

second round second leg 3–0 home win over Liberia to register his first senior international goal.

Personal life

Seri is a devout Christian.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Ivory Coast's goal tally first.''

Honours

Galatasaray *

Turkish Super Cup The Turkish Super Cup ( Turkish: ''TFF Süper Kupa''), as it is currently known, is the annual super cup football match contested between the previous season's Süper Lig champions and the Turkish Cup winners in Turkey. It was originally known ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Fulham * EFL Championship: 2021–22 Individual * UNFP Ligue 1

Team of the Year Team of the Year may refer to: * BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award * Canadian Press Team of the Year Award *GPA Gaelic Team of the Year * IRB International Sevens Team of the Year * IRB International Team of the Year * J.League Team of ...

: 2016–17 * Prix Marc-Vivien Foé: 2017 * OGC Nice Player of the Year: 2017 * Premier League Goal of the Month: August 2018

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Seri, Jean Michael 1991 births Living people People from Bas-Sassandra District Ivorian footballers Ivory Coast international footballers Association football midfielders ASEC Mimosas players FC Porto B players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players OGC Nice players Fulham F.C. players Galatasaray S.K. footballers FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Hull City A.F.C. players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Ligue 1 players Premier League players Süper Lig players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players Ivorian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Portugal Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in England Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in France Ivorian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Ivorian Christians