Samuel Umtiti

Lyon

Umtiti joined the local football club Ménival at the age of five. At nine years old, he joined the Olympique Lyonnais youth academy. He made his first appearance with the senior team on 16 August 2011, remaining an unused substitute as they defeated Rubin Kazan 3–1 in the first leg of the Champions League play-off round. He made his professional debut for the club on 8 January 2012, playing the whole match in a 3–1 victory over local rivals Lyon-Duchère in the Coupe de France. Six days later, he made his Ligue 1 debut in a 1–0 away defeat to Montpellier, playing the entire game. Umtiti made a total of 18 appearances across all competitions in his debut season. In the 2012–13 season, he became a more regular member of the Lyon first team. On 12 January 2013, against Troyes in a 2–1 away win, he scored his first career goal. He finished the season with 32 appearances in all competitions and two goals.

Barcelona

On 30 June 2016, Umtiti signed for La Liga side Barcelona for a fee of €25 million. On 17 August, Umtiti made his first appearance for Barcelona in the second leg of the 2016 Supercopa de España which Barcelona won 3–0 versus Sevilla and lifted the trophy. Umtiti picked up a knee injury in September 2016 while in Barcelona training, causing him to miss a crucial La Liga clash against Atlético Madrid. He scored his first goal for the club, on 4 March 2017, against Celta de Vigo with Barcelona winning 5–0 at the Camp Nou. He would later play a…

Youth

Umtiti was a France youth international, having represented the country from under-17 to under-21 levels. He was an integral member of the team that won France's first ever U-20 World Cup in 2013. Although, he had to sit out the final against Uruguay due to a red card received in the semi-final against Ghana.

Senior

Umtiti was born and spent the first two years of his life in Cameroon. Therefore, the Cameroonian Football Federation and their former international player Roger Milla met his advisors in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to represent their national team. Umtiti, who was at the time uncapped at senior level, was selected by the France national team manager Didier Deschamps to be part of the France's squad for the European Championship in 2016, following an injury to the compatriot Jérémy Mathieu. Umtiti made his senior debut on 3 July by playing every minute of the quarter-final against Iceland at the Stade de France, replacing the suspended Adil Rami. Thus, he became the first outfield player since Gabriel De Michèle (at the 1966 World Cup) to win his first cap for France by appearing in the finals of a major tournament and was accurate with all 77 of his passes during the match, which France won 5–2. He later earned extremely positive reviews for his performance in the semi-final against the incumbent world champions Germany. This led to a lot of excitement over Umtiti's prospects for his newly signed club, Barcelona, and his future as…

Umtiti was a powerful and rangy left-footed central defender, who was predominantly known for his physical strength, anticipation, pace, ability in the air, and tackling, as well as his distribution, technique, and ability on the ball, which enabled him to carry the ball out from the defence, or start attacking plays from the back with his passing. In 2018, ESPN FC journalist Sam Marsden praised Umtiti's reading of the game, timing and risk-taking, adding that he could lead Barcelona's defence for the next five to ten years. In the 2017–18 season, Umtiti had suffered several knee and muscle injuries when playing for Barcelona. When the World Cup came, he had been advised by many doctors to have surgery to prevent injuries getting worse and worse, however Umtiti decided to play through the pain instead. Despite winning the World Cup, Umtiti struggled with many injuries which deeply affected the rest of his career as a result, and he was known to be very injury prone from then on.

Samuel Umtiti was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon. When he was two years old, he and his family moved to Lyon, France, first residing in the northeastern commune of Villeurbanne before finally settling in the district of Ménival in the 5th arrondissement of Lyon a few months later. Umtiti acquired French nationality on 25 September 2008, through the collective effect of his mother's naturalization, thus making him a citizen of France.