Now far away from Fulham on loan at Galatasaray, Jean-Michaël Seri is trying to relaunch his career after a very tepid season at Craven Cottage.
That hasn’t gone to plan just yet, as the Ivory Coast international was pulled out of his debut at half-time before being sent off in his second league game, a red card he is currently serving a suspension for.
Off the pitch, Seri is also facing battles, as he and his lawyers have pressed charges against former club OGC Nice for ‘manipulating’ his value on the transfer market in order to avoid paying him a ‘part of a transfer percentage he was contractually owed’, all relayed by L’Equipe.
What they believe happened was Nice ‘overvalued’ Maxime Le Marchand, who was also sold to Fulham, valuing both at €12m each while it should have been €18m for Seri and €6m for the French defender.
The player’s lawyers believe he is owed around €700k, and add there are other victims in this: his two clubs in Ivory Coast (ASEC Mimosas and Centre Cyrille Domoraud) as well as his first European club (Paços de Ferreira).
The Portuguese side were apparently owed 15% of any profit of a future sale, and it’s believed the total all three have missed out on is ‘more than €1m’.
With Nice now owned by Ineos, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s company, there’s hope something will be sorted soon, but as of Monday lunchtime, the Ligue 1 club have yet to react.
