Sergi Samper · Biography

The first trophy of Sergi Samper Montaña’s career came on 30 May 2015, when FC Barcelona beat Athletic Club in the Copa del Rey final at the Camp Nou. A week later, on 6 June, the side lifted the 2014-15 UEFA Champions League in Berlin, the competition in which the midfielder had made his debut that same season. Born in Barcelona on 20 January 1995, a defensive midfielder by trade, he came through La Masia, spent four seasons at Japan’s Vissel Kobe and has played for Hungary’s Debreceni VSC since 2026.

Childhood and La Masia

Samper grew up in a sporting family: his older brother, Jordi, became a professional tennis player, and Sergi himself played tennis until he chose football at the age of six. In 2001 he passed a trial at Barcelona’s football school and joined the Benjamín B side. He worked his way through every youth category at the club, captaining each team, and with the Cadete A he won the Nike Premier Cup, the Catalan league and the Mediterranean International Cup. In the Juvenil A, under Óscar García, he began training occasionally with the first team. On 9 May 2013 he signed his first professional deal.

From Barcelona B to the first team

He made his debut for the reserves on 17 August 2013, a 2-1 defeat away to Mirandés in the Spanish second division, and between 2013 and 2016 he played 103 games for Barcelona B. Luis Enrique handed him his first-team debut on 17 September 2014, in a 1-0 win over APOEL in the Champions League group stage. That December he started both legs of the Copa del Rey tie against Huesca, won 4-0 at El Alcoraz and 8-1 at the Camp Nou. His La Liga debut followed on 12 March 2016, when he replaced Andrés Iniesta in a 6-0 home win over Getafe. Between 2014 and 2019 he made 13 competitive appearances for the first team, and he is also credited with the 2015 FIFA Club World Cup, the 2015-16 La Liga title and the 2016 Spanish Super Cup.

Spain youth international

Samper represented Spain at every youth level. He played six games for the under-16s in 2011 and eight for the under-17s between 2011 and 2012, scoring twice. He then featured twice for the under-18s in 2013 and four times for the under-19s between 2013 and 2014, scoring once. His first under-21 cap came on 12 November 2014, a home friendly against Belgium that Spain lost 4-1, in which he played the full match; he won three caps at that level up to 2016. Between 2015 and 2018 he also played twice for Catalonia. He never made his debut for the senior Spain national team.

Loans to Granada and Las Palmas

On 25 August 2016 Barcelona loaned him to Granada for the whole of the 2016-17 season. In Andalusia he found regular top-flight football for the first time, making 23 appearances, 22 of them in La Liga. In August 2017 he joined UD Las Palmas on loan, but his spell in the Canary Islands was short. On 6 January 2018 he suffered a serious injury that ruled him out for the rest of the campaign; the loan was cancelled that month and he returned to Barcelona to recover, having played five games, two of them in the league. On 4 March 2019 he terminated his deal with the club he had joined eighteen years earlier.

Four seasons at Vissel Kobe

On 7 March 2019 he signed for J1 League side Vissel Kobe, where he was reunited with Iniesta. On 3 July that year he scored his first goal as a professional, in an Emperor’s Cup tie, a tournament the club won in its 2019 edition, with the final played on 1 January 2020 against Kashima Antlers. On 8 February 2020 he started the Japanese Super Cup, which Kobe won on penalties against Yokohama F. Marinos after a 3-3 draw, in a shootout that featured nine consecutive misses. He played 31 games in 2019, 28 in 2020 and 37 in 2021, but his involvement fell to seven in 2022 and four in 2023. He left Japan in July 2023 with 107 appearances and one goal.

Andorra, Motor Lublin and Debrecen

On 28 July 2023 he returned to Spanish football with FC Andorra, in the second division. He made 19 appearances and scored once, on 3 December 2023 against SD Huesca, and left the club at the end of the 2023-24 season. On 1 August 2024 he joined Motor Lublin of the Polish Ekstraklasa. He made his debut in September 2024, playing 45 minutes of a 5-2 defeat away to Legia Warsaw, and went on to make 25 league appearances in 2024-25 and 28 in 2025-26. On 27 June 2026 he signed for Debreceni VSC of the Hungarian top flight.