Yan Valery ( ar, يان فاليري; born 22 February 1999) is a 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

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

club

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

and the Tunisia national team. He began his senior career in England with

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

and spent the second half of the 2020–21 season on loan at

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 ...

club

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

before joining Angers in 2022. In international football, he represented his native France at under-17 and under-18 levels before switching to his mother's country of Tunisia at senior level in 2022.

Early life

Valery was born in Champigny-sur-Marne, France to a Martiniquais father and Tunisian mother. He is a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Club career

Southampton

Valery joined

in 2015 from

Stade Rennais Stade Rennais Football Club (), commonly referred to as Stade Rennais FC, Stade Rennais, Rennes, or simply SRFC, is a French professional football club based in Rennes, Brittany. They compete in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, and pl ...

. On 27 November 2018, Southampton boss

Mark Hughes Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is the manager of Bradford City. During his playing career he usually operated as a forward or midfielder. He had two spells at Manchester United, an ...

handed Valery his first team debut in an

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

match against

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

. Four days later, he made his league debut, playing the whole match in a 2–2 draw against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. On 2 March 2019, Valery scored his first Southampton goal in a 3–2 defeat away to

, opening the scoring with "an outstanding finish". The week later, Valery scored again in a 2–1 win at home to

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. Valery ended the season with a total of 23 appearances. At the end of the season, Valery was voted as 'Saints Young Player of the Season'. Despite this, the 2019–20 season would be tough for Valery, who only made a total of 11 starts for Southampton. Valery later revealed that he had

glandular fever In animals, a gland is a group of cells in an animal's body that synthesizes substances (such as hormones) for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland). Structure De ...

which kept him out for a significant part of the season. The arrival of

Kyle Walker-Peters Kyle Leonardus Walker-Peters (born 13 April 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a full-back for Premier League club Southampton and the England national team. Personal life Walker-Peters was born in Edmonton, London. His ...

from Tottenham Hotspur, initially on loan, made it harder for Valery to get back into the Southampton first team. On 26 January 2021, Valery made his first Premier League start of the season in Southampton's 3–1 defeat to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Loan to Birmingham City

On 1 February 2021, Valery joined

club

for the remainder of the 2020–21 season. He made his debut five days later as a late substitute in a 3–2 loss away to

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

, and replaced

Maxime Colin Maxime Jean-Yves Colin (born 15 November 1991) is a French professional footballer who plays as a full back for club Birmingham City. He previously played for Boulogne, Troyes, Anderlecht and Brentford. He won seven caps for France at under- ...

in the starting eleven for the next fixture, another defeat. He made seven appearances (two starts) in the early part of his loan spell but had no matchday involvement after

Lee Bowyer Lee David Bowyer (; born 3 January 1977) is an English football manager and former professional player. As a player, he was a midfielder who featured for Charlton Athletic, Leeds United, West Ham United (two spells), Newcastle United, Birming ...

took over as head coach in mid-March.

Angers

On 1 September 2022, Valery joined

club

on a four-year contract.

International career

Valery has represented France at both under-17 and under-18 level. In January 2019, he met with Tunisia manager

Alain Giresse Alain Jean Giresse (; born 2 August 1952) is a French football coach and former player who is the current manager of the Kosovo national team. He was French Player of the Year in 1982, 1983 and 1987. Nominally an attacking midfielder or centra ...

and agreed to play for the Tunisia national team. In September 2022, Valery accepted a call-up to play for Tunisia in friendlies against

Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in preparation for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

. He made his debut as a late substitute in the 5–1 loss to Brazil on 27 September.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * *
Southampton FC profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valery, Yan 1999 births Living people People from Champigny-sur-Marne Citizens of Tunisia through descent Tunisian footballers Tunisia international footballers French footballers France youth international footballers Association football defenders Southampton F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Angers SCO players Premier League players English Football League players Ligue 1 players French expatriate footballers French expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Tunisian people of Martiniquais descent French sportspeople of Tunisian descent French people of Martiniquais descent