Japhet Sery Larsen (born 10 April 2000) is a Danish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays for

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

club

SK Brann Sportsklubben Brann is a Norwegian professional football club based in Bergen. Founded on 26 September 1908, Brann has played in the first tier of Norwegian football for 67 out of 80 seasons, the second most of any club. They play their hom ...

as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. Sery is a product of the

FC Midtjylland Football Club Midtjylland (, "Central Jutland") is a Danish professional football club based in Herning and Ikast. The club is the result of a merger between Ikast FS and Herning Fremad. Midtjylland competes in the Danish Superliga, which they ...

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and began his senior career with the club in 2020. He transferred to Norwegian club SK Brann in 2021 and to

FK Bodø/Glimt Fotballklubben Bodø/Glimt (), also referred to as Bodø/Glimt or its former name Glimt, is a Norwegian professional football club from the town of Bodø in Bodø Municipality, Nordland county, Norway. The club currently plays in Eliteserien ...

in 2022, before returning to SK Brann in 2023. Sery has been capped by

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

at youth level. His nickname is "Jeff".

Club career

FC Midtjylland

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

, Sery began his career with spells at CIK, KB, B93 and

Lyngby Kongens Lyngby (, Danish language, Danish for "the King's Heather Town"; short form Lyngby) is the seat and commercial centre of Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Lyngby Hovedgade is a busy shopping stre ...

, before joining the

Superliga Superliga (''super league'') may refer to: Sports Superliga can refer to different sports leagues: Association football *Albanian Superliga, the Albanian top-flight men's division * Argentine Superliga, the Argentine top-flight men's division *D ...

club

in July 2015. He progressed to sign a contract extension in January 2018 and was a part of the club's 2017–18 and 2018–19 U19 Ligaen-winning squads. Sery was an unused substitute for the first team on one occasion during the 2018–19 season and signed a five-year professional contract in 2019. On 21 June 2019, Sery joined the B team at

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

for the duration of the 2019–20 season. He was an unused substitute for the first team during a 1–0

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

third round victory over

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

on 4 January 2020. Sery returned to Midtjylland to begin the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season as a member of the first team squad. He made 8 appearances during the season and scored one goal, in a 3–0 win over OB on 10 March 2021. Sery left the club in July 2021.

SK Brann

On 24 July 2021, Sery moved to Norway to sign a -year contract with

club

. After making his debut eight days later with a start in a 3–0

Norwegian Cup The Norwegian Football Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Norwegian football. It is run by the Football Association of Norway and has been contested since 1902, making it the oldest football tournament in the country. The tournament ...

second round win over

Fana Fana or fanaa most commonly refers to: * Fana, Bergen, a borough of the city of Bergen, Norway * Fana (Sufism), the Sufi term for "annihilation of the self" People * Fanã (born 1960), Portuguese football manager * Saint Fana (c. 354–395), Eg ...

, Sery missed five weeks due to requiring surgery for

appendicitis Appendicitis is inflammation of the Appendix (anatomy), appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fever and anorexia (symptom), decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these t ...

. He made 9 appearances and scored one goal during the remainder of the

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, which culminated in relegation after defeat in the 2021 Eliteserien relegation play-offs. Sery departed the club in February 2022.

FK Bodø/Glimt

On 2 February 2022, Sery signed a three-year contract with reigning Eliteserien champions

. Either side of two months out with an injury suffered in July 2022, Sery made 18 appearances during the 2022 season and departed the club in January 2023.

Return to SK Brann

On 25 January 2023, Sery returned to SK Brann and signed a four-year contract. In his absence, the club had been promoted back to the Eliteserien. During a 2023 season in which the club finished as runners-up in the Eliteserien and won the

, Sery made 28 appearances and scored two goals. Sery made 29 appearances during the 2024 season, in which the club repeated its runner-up finish.

International career

Sery was capped by

at U16,

U17 U17 or U-17 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , various vessels * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Cessna U-17 Skywagon, an American utility aircraft * Nonconvex great rhombicuboctahedron In geometry, the nonconvex g ...

, U18, U19 and U21 level.

Personal life

Sery grew up in

Herlev Herlev is a suburb about 11 km northwest of Copenhagen city centre, bordering Rødovre to the south, Ballerup to the west and Gladsaxe Municipality, Gladsaxe to the north. It is the site of the municipal council of Herlev Municipality, Denma ...

and is of Ivorian descent. As a youth, he competed in

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

for

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

Career statistics

Honours

SK Brann *

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

References

External links

Japhet Sery Larsen
at brann.no * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Larsen, Japhet Sery Living people 2000 births Footballers from Copenhagen Men's association football central defenders Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Danish men's footballers Danish expatriate men's footballers Denmark men's youth international footballers Kjøbenhavns Boldklub players Boldklubben af 1893 players Lyngby Boldklub players FC Midtjylland players Brentford F.C. players SK Brann players Danish Superliga players Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Danish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Norway FK Bodø/Glimt players Danish people of Ivorian descent 21st-century Danish sportsmen