Sébastien Haller

Haller playing for West Ham United in 2019
Personal information
Full name Sébastien Romain Teddy Haller[1]
Date of birth (1994-06-22) 22 June 1994 (age 27)[2]
Place of birth Ris-Orangis, France
Height 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)[3]
Position(s) Forward
Club information
Current team
 Ajax
Number 22
Youth career
2003–2005 FCO Vigneux
2005–2007 Brétigny Foot
2007–2012 Auxerre
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2010–2014 Auxerre II 57 (29)
2012–2015 Auxerre 50 (6)
2015 → Utrecht (loan) 17 (11)
2015–2017 Utrecht 65 (30)
2017–2019 Eintracht Frankfurt 60 (24)
2019–2021 West Ham United 48 (10)
2021– Ajax 36 (23)
National team‡
2010 France U16 1 (0)
2011 France U17 12 (6)
2011–2012 France U18 4 (1)
2012–2013 France U19 7 (3)
2013–2014 France U20 7 (2)
2013–2016 France U21 20 (13)
2020– Ivory Coast 8 (3)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 3 January 2022
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 15:05, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

Sébastien Romain Teddy Haller (born 22 June 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Eredivisie club Ajax and the Ivory Coast national team.

Haller began his career with Auxerre, and moved on loan to Dutch Eredivise side Utrecht in 2015, before signing on a permanent basis. After two years in the Netherlands, he moved to German club Eintracht Frankfurt, winning the DFB-Pokal in 2018. Haller performances sparked the interest of English Premier League side West Ham United, signing him in 2019 for a club-record transfer worth €49.8 million (£45 million). Following a disappointing spell in England, Haller returned to the Netherlands in 2021 signing with Ajax, for a club record fee of €22.5 million (£18.8 million). In his first six months, he won the Eredivisie and KNVB Cup. Haller became the first player to score ten goals across six consecutive UEFA Champions League matches during the 2021–22 season.

Born in France, to a French father and an Ivorian mother, Haller represented France at the youth level, before switching his allegiance in 2020 to the Ivory Coast. He scored his first international goal against Madagascar.

Early life

Haller was born in Ris-Orangis, Essonne, Paris, France[4] to a French father and an Ivorian mother.[5][6]

Club career

Auxerre

During the 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup, on 26 June 2011, Haller signed his first professional contract with Auxerre, agreeing to a three-year deal.[7]

Ahead of the 2012–13 season, Haller was promoted to the senior team by manager Jean-Guy Wallemme. His professional debut came on 27 July 2012, in the team’s opening league match of the 2012–13 campaign against Nîmes.[8]

Utrecht

On 24 December 2014, it was announced that Haller was sent on loan to Dutch Eredivisie club Utrecht until the end of the season.[9] At the end of the season, it was announced that FC Utrecht had signed Haller.[10] The supporters voted for Haller as the winner of the Di Tommaso Trophy 2015, Utrecht’s player of the year award.[11]

Eintracht Frankfurt

On 15 May 2017, Haller signed with Eintracht Frankfurt on a four-year deal for a reported fee of €7 million.[12] In the 2017–18 DFB-Pokal, he scored four goals for Frankfurt, as the club won the final, marking the first trophy of Haller’s career. In the 2018–19 Bundesliga season, he scored 15 league goals in 29 appearances as the club finished seventh.[13]
In addition to his goals scored, he also made nine assists, so was involved in 24 goals, a figure only beaten in the 2018–19 season by Robert Lewandowski with 29.[14]

West Ham United

Haller playing for West Ham United in 2019

On 17 July 2019, Haller signed with West Ham United on a five-year deal for a club record fee, that could rise to £45 million.[15][16] On 31 July, Haller scored his first goal for West Ham in a pre-season friendly against Hertha BSC, in which West Ham won 5–3.[17] He made his Premier League debut for West Ham on 10 August, in a 5–0 loss against reigning champions Manchester City.[18] On 24 August 2019, Haller scored his first and second goals in the Premier League for West Ham in a 3–1 away win against Watford in which he scored an acrobatic bicycle kick.[19]

On 1 January 2020, Haller scored an acrobatic scissor kick against Bournemouth in a 4–0 home win.[20] In July 2020, Frankfurt reported West Ham to FIFA after they had failed to pay an instalment in May 2020 of £5.4million as part of the £45 million transfer. West Ham claimed that they had withheld the payment, following a contractual dispute between the two clubs.[21]

On 16 December 2020, Haller scored an overhead kick in a 1–1 draw against Crystal Palace in the Premier League that was later voted as the Premier League Goal of the Month in December.[22][23]

Ajax

2020–21 season

On 8 January 2021, Haller signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with Dutch club Ajax, for a club record fee of €22.5 million (£18.8 million) to West Ham United, reuniting with his former manager Erik ten Hag.[24][25] Haller made his debut two days later as a second-half substitute against De Topper rivals PSV; he provided an assist to Antony for Ajax’s equalizing goal and also had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside as the match ended 2–2.[26] On 14 January, Haller scored his first goal for Ajax, and provided an assist, in a 3–1 away league win over Twente.[27] On 3 February, it was revealed that Haller had been mistakenly omitted from Ajax’s squad list for the knockout stages of the UEFA Europa League and therefore would be unable to play for the club in the competition.[28]

2021–22 season

In a 5–1 away victory over Sporting in the UEFA Champions League on 15 September 2021, he scored twice in each half to become the first player to score four on his Champions League debut since Marco van Basten for A.C. Milan in 1992.[29] The following match of the Champions League season, on 28 September, Haller recorded a goal against Beşiktaş, becoming the first player in the history of the competition to score five goals in his first two matches appearances.[30] In the reverse fixture, on 24 November, Haller scored two goals and had another ruled out by VAR, in a 2–1 win against Beşiktaş to become the first player to score nine goals in five consecutive matches of the competition.[31] On 7 December, Haller scored in Ajax’s final Champions League group stage match, and in the process became only the second player to register in all six group games after Cristiano Ronaldo in 2017–18 and became the fastest player to 10 goals in competition history.[32]

International career

Haller with France U19 in 2013

Haller was a France youth international, having represented his nation at every youth level. He played with the under-17 team at the 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup.[33]

In November 2020, Haller was called up to the Ivory Coast national team.[34] He debuted for the Ivory Coast in a 2–1 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification win over Madagascar on 12 November, scoring his side’s game-winning goal in the 55th minute.[35]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 22 December 2021[36]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup League Cup Europe Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Auxerre II 2010–11[36] CFA 2 1 — — — — 2 1
2011–12[36] CFA 22 12 — — — — 22 12
2012–13[36] CFA 19 4 — — — — 19 4
2013–14[36] CFA 2 8 5 — — — — 8 5
2014–15[36] CFA 2 6 7 — — — — 6 7
Total 57 29 — — — — 57 29
Auxerre 2012–13[36] Ligue 2 17 2 0 0 1 0 — — 18 2
2013–14[36] Ligue 2 25 4 1 0 2 2 — — 28 6
2014–15[36] Ligue 2 8 0 0 0 3 0 — — 11 0
Total 50 6 1 0 6 2 — — 57 8
Utrecht (loan) 2014–15[36] Eredivisie 17 11 — — — — 17 11
Utrecht 2015–16[36] Eredivisie 33 17 5 5 — — 4[a] 2 42 24
2016–17[36] Eredivisie 32 13 3 1 — — 4[a] 2 39 16
Total 82 41 8 6 — — 8 4 98 51
Eintracht Frankfurt 2017–18[36] Bundesliga 31 9 5 4 — — — 36 13
2018–19[36] Bundesliga 29 15 1 0 — 10[b] 5 1[c] 0 41 20
Total 60 24 6 4 — 10 5 1 0 77 33
West Ham United 2019–20[37] Premier League 32 7 2 0 1 0 — — 35 7
2020–21[38] Premier League 16 3 — 3 4 — — 19 7
Total 48 10 2 0 4 4 — — 54 14
Ajax 2020–21[38] Eredivisie 19 11 4 2 — — — 23 13
2021–22[39] Eredivisie 17 12 0 0 — 6[d] 10 1[e] 0 24 22
Total 34 21 4 2 — 6 10 1 0 45 33
Career total 331 131 21 12 10 6 16 15 10 4 388 168
  1. ^ a b Appearances in Eredivisie European play-offs
  2. ^ Appearances in UEFA Europa League
  3. ^ Appearance in DFL-Supercup
  4. ^ Appearances in UEFA Champions League
  5. ^ Appearance in Johan Cruyff Shield

International

As of match played 6 September 2021[40]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Ivory Coast 2020 2 1
2021 4 2
Total 6 3
As of match played 6 September 2021
Ivory Coast score listed first, score column indicates score after each Haller goal[40]
List of international goals scored by Sébastien Haller
No. Date Venue Cap Opponent Score Result Competition Ref.
1 12 November 2020 Stade National de la Côte d’Ivoire, Abidjan, Ivory Coast 1  Madagascar 2–0 2–1 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification [41]
2 6 September 2021 Stade National de la Côte d’Ivoire, Abidjan, Ivory Coast 6  Cameroon 1–0 2–1 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification [42]
3 2–0

Honours

Eintracht Frankfurt

Ajax

Individual


source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9bastien_Haller