Seko Fofana

Seko Mohamed Fofana (born 7 May 1995) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Italian club Udinese in Serie A.

Seko Fofana
Fofana with Bastia in January 2016
Personal information
Full name Seko Mohamed Fofana[1]
Date of birth (1995-05-07) 7 May 1995
Place of birth Paris, France
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position(s) Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Udinese
Number 6
Youth career
2004–2010 Paris FC
2010–2013 Lorient
2013–2014 Manchester City
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2014–2016 Manchester City 0 (0)
2014–2015 → Fulham (loan) 25 (1)
2015–2016 → Bastia (loan) 32 (1)
2016– Udinese 112 (13)
National team‡
2010–2011 France U16 12 (7)
2011–2012 France U17 11 (2)
2012–2013 France U18 7 (2)
2013 France U19 3 (1)
2017– Ivory Coast 6 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:28, 7 August 2020 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 16:02, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

Club career

Manchester City

Born in Paris, France, Fofana began his youth career at Paris when he was nine and stayed there for six years before joining Lorient.[2] After two years at Lorient,[2] he moved to England when he joined Premier League side Manchester City in 2013 and was immediately sent to the development squad.[3]

Fofana began to be a regular in the under-18s in the 2013–14 season, making 20 appearances and scoring 5 goals in the league and playing 7 times scoring twice in the club's UEFA Youth League campaign against CSKA Moscow[4] and Benfica Juniors.[5] During Manchester City's U21 friendly match against HNK Rijeka, he was racially abused by one of the opposition player just before half-time. As a result, players from Manchester City's U21 squad walked off the pitch, prompting the match to be cancelled.[6] After the match, Manager Patrick Vieira praised the action of the players' action to walk out.[7]

Fulham loan

On 27 November 2014, Fofana signed for Championship side Fulham on loan until 31 January 2015.[8] He made his Fulham debut two days later, where he came on as a substitute for Emerson Hyndman in the 63rd minute, in a 2–1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion.[9] His form and performance convinced Fulham to extend the loan spell until the end of the season.[10] He scored his first goal for the club on 21 March 2015 to secure a 2–0 win away to Huddersfield Town.[11] Having established himself under the management of Kit Symons,[12] Fofana went on to make 25 appearances scoring once before returning to his parent club.

Bastia loan

After making two appearances for City during their pre-season tour in Australia (playing the second half of a 2–0 win over Adelaide United,[13] and coming on as a late substitute in Manchester City's 1–0 win over Melbourne City),[14] the Premier League club agreed to send Fofana out on loan again to gain further experience. The Frenchman subsequently returned to his native France, to join Bastia on a season-long loan on 29 July 2015.[15] He made his Ligue 1 debut in the opening game of the season 10 days later, on 8 August 2015, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2−1 win at home to Rennes.[16] He then scored his first goal on 12 December 2015, in a 1–1 draw against Troyes,[17] followed up by assisting in the next game on 19 December 2015, in a 2–0 win over Reims.[18] In a 1–0 win over Montpellier on 16 January 2016, Fofana received a straight red card in the 65th minutes.[19] After the match, he was given a four match ban[20] and Fofana, himself, apologised for his action.[21] In total, he made 32 appearances and scoring once for Bastia.

Udinese

After three years at Manchester City, Fofana joined Serie A side Udinese, signing a five-year deal for worth £2.5 million.[22] In addition to move, the move included €2 million possible bonus and Bastia receiving 15% of the total compensation, up to €700K.[23] Fofana made his Udinese debut in the opening game of the season playing 79 minutes before being substituted, in a 4–0 loss against Roma.[24]

International career

Fofana was eligible to play for France and Ivory Coast, as his parents come from there.[25] Fofana previously represented France U16, France U17, France U18 and France U19. On 3 April 2017, Fofana chose to represent the Ivory Coast, the country of his parents.[26]

Fofana made his debut for Ivory Coast in a 2–0 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification loss to Morocco on 11 November 2017.[27]

Career statistics

Club
As of match played 2 August 2020[28]
Club statistics
Club Season League Cup League Cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Fulham (loan) 2014–15 Championship 21140——251
Bastia (loan) 2015–16 Ligue 1 32110——331
Udinese 2016–17 Serie A 22510——235
2017–18 27320——293
2018–19 31210——322
2019–20 32330——353
Total 1121370000011913
Career total 16915120000017715

International goals
Scores and results list the Ivory Coast's goal tally first.[29]
No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.10 September 2019Stade Robert Diochon, Rouen, France Tunisia2–02–1Friendly
gollark: No, I mean I need to stop you from accessing the ports behind the osmarksfirewall™, see.
gollark: I would also have to restrict disk space and network IO.
gollark: Potentially. I don't know.
gollark: Sort of?
gollark: Except on port 22 I run a "honeypot" which just sends `$ \n` whenever you enter a command and logs you in regardless of username/password.

References
  1. "01 February 2013 Premier League Clubs submit Squad Lists" (PDF). Premier League. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
  2. "Info FM : à la découverte de Seko Fofana, la pépite française de Man City". Foot Mercato. 6 April 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  3. "Player Profile - Seko Fofana". Manchester City F.C. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  4. "Match Report: Manchester City U19s 1 CSKA U19s 2". Manchester Evening News. 5 November 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  5. "Manchester City U19 1 Benfica Juniors 2: Young Blues crash out of UEFA Youth League". Manchester Evening news. 18 March 2014. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  6. "Racism Claim Halts Manchester City Friendly". Sky News. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  7. "Vieira praised for EDS walkoff". Manchester Evening News. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  8. "Fofana Joins On Loan". Fulham FC. 27 November 2014. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  9. "Sky Bet Championship: Fulham come from behind to beat Brighton 2-1". Sky Sports. 30 November 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  10. "Seko Fofana: Fulham extend Manchester City man's loan spell". BBC Sport. 19 January 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  11. "Huddersfield Town 0-2 Fulham". BBC Sport. 21 March 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  12. "Pro Seko In Sparkling Form". Fulham F.C. 3 February 2015. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  13. "Adelaide United 0-2 Man City: Brandon Barker and Bruno Zuculini on target". Sky Sports. 15 July 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  14. "Melbourne City 0-1 Manchester City: Samir Nasri scores only goal". Sky Sports. 18 July 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  15. "Seko Fofana joins Bastia on loan". Manchester City F.C. 29 July 2015. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  16. "Bastia-Rennes (2-1), Bastia renverse Rennes" (in French). Goal.com. 8 August 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  17. "TOUJOURS PAS DE VICTOIRE POUR TROYES" (in French). Football 365. 12 December 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  18. "BASTIA PASSERA LES FÊTES AU CHAUD" (in French). Football 365. 19 December 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  19. "BASTIA FAIT REPLONGER MONTPELLIER" (in French). Football 365. 16 January 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  20. "Commission de discipline : le Bastiais Seko Fofana prend 4 matches" (in French). L'Equipe. 21 January 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  21. "Seko Fofana s'est excusé auprès de Jonas Martin pour son coup de boule" (in French). L'Equipe. 17 January 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  22. "Udinese sign Manchester City midfielder Seko Fofana - report". ESPN. 23 June 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  23. "Transfert Seko Fofana quitte Manchester City pour l'Udinese". L'Equipe. 22 June 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  24. "Roma-Udinese 4-0: super Perotti, i giallorossi calano subito il poker" (in Italian). Repubblica.it. 20 August 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  25. "Seko Fofana (Bastia) dragué par la Côte d'Ivoire" (in French). L'Equipe. 7 February 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  26. Rédaction. "Côte d'Ivoire : Maxwel Cornet et Seko Fofana ont choisi de jouer pour les Eléphants".
  27. FIFA.com. "2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ - Matches - Ivory Coast-Morocco - FIFA.com". FIFA.com.
  28. Seko Fofana at Soccerway
  29. "Seko Fofana". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmerman. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.