Serey Dié


Sereso Geoffroy Gonzaroua Dié, known as Serey Dié, is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder in Switzerland for FC Sion.

Club career

Early career

Born in Facobly, Dié started his football career with Centre National des Sports de Haut Niveau in Abidjan. He played one year for Volcan Junior and one year for CO Korhogo, before moving to top team Stade d'Abidjan in 2003. Three years later, he moved to EO Goulette et Kram in Tunisia. But this was also to remain a short stay, he cancelled his contract himself after just half a year.

ES Sétif

Dié was invited for a trial with ES Sétif, and therefore moved to Algeria. This adventure nearly started and ended as a farce on the same day. As the club's president saw Dié, he thought that the wrong player had been hired and sent him home. The coach asked Dié to stay for the training, which he did and in a test match, he was able to convince the club's management to let him stay for a six-month trial. During this trial period, Dié played well and ES Sétif won the 2007–08 Arab Champions League, but he refused to sign the contact that he was subsequently offered.

Sion

Between 2008 and 2012, Dié played for Sion, with whom he won the Swiss Cup twice. During March 2010, he came under suspicion of corruption in connection with betting manipulation. In May 2012, he was the subject of controversy after cameras filmed him slapping a thirteen-year-old ball-boy in the face. This was during the away game against FC Lausanne-Sport on 2 May. This assault resulted in an eight match suspension.

Basel

On 13 December 2012, Basel announced the signing of Dié on a three-and-a-half year contract. He made his debut for Basel on 10 February 2013, in a 3–0 home win in St. Jakob-Park against his former club, Sion. He scored his first goal for Basel, the first goal of the match, in a 4–0 away win against Luzern in the Swissporarena, on 1 April 2013. At the end of the Swiss Super League season 2012–13, he won the Championship title and was Swiss Cup runner up with Basel. In the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League, Basel advanced as far as the semi-finals, there being matched against the reigning UEFA Champions League holders Chelsea, but were knocked out being beaten 2–5 on aggregate.
At the end of the 2013–14 Super League season, Dié won his second league championship with Basel. They also reached the final of the 2013–14 Swiss Cup, but were beaten 2–0 by Zürich after extra time. In the 2013–14 Champions League season, Basel, in the group stage, finished the group in third position to qualify for the Europa League knockout phase and then, they advanced as far as the quarter-finals. In their 2013–14 season, Basel played a total of 68 matches. Dié totaled 38 appearances, 22 League, 3 Cup, 4 Champions League and 5 Europa League as well 4 in the test games. He scored 2 goals in these matches.
The season 2014–15 was a successful one for Basel. Dié's season was an unlucky and unthankful one under the new trainer, Paulo Sousa. Despite the fact that Basel won the championship for the sixth time in a row that season and despite that Basel had entered the Champions League in the group stage, reaching the knockout phase on 9 December 2014, as they managed a 1-1 draw at Anfield against Liverpool, Dié totaled just 13 appearances during the first half of the season. Because Sousa did not rely on Dié, he was forced to leave the club during the winter break.

VfB Stuttgart

On 2 February 2015, Dié moved to Stuttgart. After returning victorious from the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, he featured in all but one of Stuttgart's remaining games, becoming a key member of the midfield.

Return to Basel

On 15 July 2016, he returned to Basel. Under trainer Urs Fischer, he won the Swiss Super League championship at the end of the 2016–17 Super League season. For the club, this was the eighth title in a row and their 20th championship title in total. They also won the Swiss Cup for the twelfth time, which meant they had won the double for the sixth time in the club's history.

Return to Sion

On 26 May 2020 it was confirmed, that Dié had returned to the side where he started his European career at seven years ago, FC Sion, signing a two-year deal.

International career

He represented Ivory Coast on 50 occasions between 2013 and 2019, scoring 2 goals.

Personal life

At the 2014 FIFA World Cup, during Ivory Coast's match against Colombia, Dié was shown crying during the national anthem before the match. Despite rumors of his emotional feelings were for his father's death, this was inaccurate; Dié himself claimed that he did think about his father, but that the emotion came from the intensity and excitement he felt while representing his national team.

Career statistics

International

International goals

GoalDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.20 January 2017Stade d'Oyem, Oyem, Gabon2–22–22017 Africa Cup of Nations
2.1 July 201930 June Stadium, Cairo, Egypt2–04–12019 Africa Cup of Nations

Honours

Club

ES Sétif
FC Sion
FC Basel
Ivory Coast