Umtiti, Samuel

Umtiti in 2015

Samuel Umtiti was born in Cameroon , where he was the youngest of 4 children ^[3] . Two years later, his family moved to France , settling in Lyon . The football player himself does not remember anything about his country of birth: “I still have relatives in Yaoundé , I often talk to them on the phone, but I have no memories of my two years in Cameroon. I left him at the age of two, but this is part of my roots ” ^[4] . The family first lived in the Villeurba area, then moved to Gerland, and from there to Menival ^[5] . At the age of 5, Umtiti began to play for the local Menival club of the same name ^[3] , where he came with his friend Sebastien Flocco ^[6] . His mother resisted her son’s football activities for a long time, fearing for his future. But later she gave up, which, subsequently, did not regret ^[5] . At the age of 8, he was invited to view the Lyon club, which ended successfully ^[7] . Initially, the player played in the club in attack , but then was transferred to midfield and only then to defense . In many of these youth teams, Samuel wore a captain's armband. On November 14, 2008, Umtiti signed his first professional contract with the club. Since July 1, 2010, the defender played for the youth team.

Club career

In 2011, Umtiti was called up to the first team. In the main squad, Lyon debuted on January 8, 2012, in a victory match against Ducher in the French Cup ^[8] , which ended with the score 3: 1.

On July 20, 2015, Umtiti extended the contract with Lyon until 2019 ^[9] . In November 2015, Samuel got a hip muscle rupture in a match with Saint-Etienne ^[10] , because of which he did not perform for two months ^[11] .

On July 12, 2016, Umtiti moved to Barcelona for 25 million euros, signing a five-year contract with the Catalan club ^[12] . The "blue-garnet" originally wanted to buy Marquinhos , but made a choice in favor of Samuel, because of the much more expensive transfer cost of the Brazilian ^[13] . On August 18, he made his debut as part of the Catalan club in a match with Sevilla as part of the Spanish Super Cup ^[14] . In November, he received a serious injury - a rupture of the thigh muscle, because of which he did not perform for almost three months ^[15] . In December, the defender was in the symbolic team of the year of the opening players of the Champions League , compiled by UEFA ^[16] . In January, he said: “Going to Barcelona is a dream come true for me. Signing a contract with the club directly at Camp Nou was one of the best moments in my life. I feel that I have fully adapted to the team. “Barcelona” is the best club in the world, in which the best players play ” ^[17] . March 4, 2017, the Frenchman scored the first goal for Barcelona, ​​hitting the goal of Celta . In total, Umtiti spent 43 matches in the first season and scored 1 goal. On December 2, 2017, Samuel was injured in the posterior thigh and was out of action for two months ^[18] .

In January 2018, Manchester City expressed interest in Umtiti services ^[19] . But on June 3 of that year, Barcelona announced an extension of the contract with Umtiti for five years ^[20] .

Team Career

Samuel Umtiti from the age of 16 was called up to the national teams of France of all ages, starting with the category “before 17”.

In 2013, he was the main central defender of the national team at the World Championship among youth teams held in Turkey. The defender took part in all the games of the group stage, but due to exhaustion of cards he was disqualified for the 1/8 final match against the host team of the championship. He was returned to the head coach Pierre Mankovsky for the quarterfinal and semifinal games, but in the latter he received a “red card” and was forced to miss the final match. France became the world champion in the age category under 20 years old, Umtiti received the "gold" championship medal.

In December 2013, the Cameroon Football Federation expressed interest in inviting Umtiti to the national team ^[21] .

In 2016, by the decision of the head coach of the adult national team Didier Deschamps, Umtiti became one of 8 reserve footballers - potential participants in the final stage of Euro 2016 , held in the homeland. On May 28, due to an injury to defender Jeremy Mathieu, the 22-year-old Umtiti was included in the first team at Euro 2016 ^[22] . On July 3, he made his national team debut at the European Championships in a match with Iceland , becoming only the third player in the history of French football to play the first match for the national team at the European Championship ^[23] .

In 2018, as part of the national team, Umtiti became the winner of the World Cup in Russia . In addition to a reliable defense game (at the tournament Umtiti was the main defender of the French team) Samuel scored the only goal in the semifinal match with the Belgian team .

Club statistics

As of May 4, 2019

Team appearances

As of June 8, 2019

Matches and Goals for the Team

As of June 8, 2019

Total: 31 matches / 4 goals; 23 wins, 4 draws, 4 losses .

  Olympic Lyon

• French Cup Winner: 2011/12
• French Super Cup Winner: 2012

Total: 2 trophies

  Barcelona

• Champion of Spain (2) : 2017/18 , 2018/19
• Spanish Cup Winner (2) : 2016/17 , 2017/18
• Super Bowl Spain (2) : 2016 , 2018

Total: 6 trophies

  France

• World Youth Champion : 2013
• Silver medalist of the European Championship 2016
• World Champion : 2018

Total: 2 trophies

• Statistics of player appearances on the League website 1
• Profile at L'Equipe Football
• Profile on ESPN
• Player profile on Transfermarkt
• Soccerway Profile
• National Football Teams profile