Eray Cömert

Eray Ervin Cömert (born 4 February 1998) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Spanish club Valladolid, on loan from Valencia, and the Switzerland national team.

Youth football
Cömert started his youth football with Concordia Basel. In 2009, he transferred to the youth system of Basel advancing regularly through the ranks. In summer 2014, he advanced to their U-18 team under coach Raphael Wicky, playing more than half of the games that season and winning the Swiss U-18 Cup.

In the following season, he started with the U-18 team and during the winter break advanced to their U-21 team, who played in the Promotion League the third highest tier in the Swiss football league system. Just a few months later, Basel's first team secured the Swiss championship with the 2–1 victory over Sion. Basel's head coach Urs Fischer had nominated Cömert as substitute for that match and nominated him into the starting eleven for each of the last five games of the season. He played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game in the Letzigrund on 7 May 2016 as Basel won 3–2 against Zürich.

For their 2016–17 season, Cömert trained with the first team but played for the U-21 team to gain playing experience. He played in nine test games for the first team and had two 90-minute appearances for them in that season's Swiss Cup. At the end of Basel's 2016–17 season, the team won the championship. They also won the 2016–17 Swiss Cup, defeating Sion 3–0 in the final, which meant they had won the double.

Loans to Lugano and Sion
On 8 March 2017, Basel announced that they were loaning out Cömert to Lugano, until the end of the 2016–17 Swiss Super League season, so that he could gain first team playing experience. He played the last 12 Matches of the season, each over the full 90 minutes and helped the team to avoid relegation. After the loan period he returned to his club of origin, but on 7 July Basel announced that they were loaning Cömert out to Sion, for the 2017–18 Super League season. However, in his very first game he injured his shoulder and missed the rest of the matches in that year. He returned in the new year, but after just ten games the injury reoccured and he missed the rest of the season.

Breakthrough
After the loan period, in July 2018, Cömert again returned to Basel. But, the Basel's 2018–19 season started badly. Already in the preparation games things went wrong and as the team started their league season they lost the first home game against St. Gallen. Head coach Raphaël Wicky was immediately replaced by Marcel Koller. But things were not much better, Basel ended the league season in second position, with a massiv 20 points residue behind champions Young Boys. Nevertheless, Basel won the Swiss Cup in the 2018–19 season. The final was held on 19 May 2019 in the Stade de Suisse Wankdorf Bern against Thun. Striker Albian Ajeti scored the first goal, Fabian Frei the second for Basel, then Dejan Sorgić netted a goal for Thun, but the end result was 2–1 for Basel. Cömert scored his first goal for his team in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park on 23 August. It was the 1st leg of the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League play-off round and it was the winning goal of the match as Basel won 3–2 against Apollon Limassol. He scored his first domestic league goal for his team in the away game in the Swissporarena on 25 November 2018. It was the equaliser in the fifth minute of added time as Basel played a 1–1 draw with Luzern. This season was the breakthrough for the central defender. Cömert totaled 31 appearances, 24 League, two in the Cup and five in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League. He scored those afore mentioned two goals in these matches.

Regular starter
Marcel Koller remained FCB first team manager for their 2019–20 season. The season started out well, despite the fact that Basel lost their first home game at the St. Jakob-Park, after 11 rounds they were leading the table having won eight of these rounds. There after, however, they were defeated in three consecutive away games and thus slipped to second position in the table before the winter break. At the start of the second half of season the team suffered two straight off defeats against reigning Swiss champions Young Boys and the team St. Gallen who then rose to the top of the league table. Following a home defeat against bottom of the table Thun, Basel lost contact to the top two teams and never caught up with them again. All matches in Switzerland between 28 February and end of May were postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Switzerland. Basel ended the season in third position. In the 2019–20 Swiss Cup Basel advanced to the final, but here they were defeated 2–1 by Young Boys. In the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League Basel started in the qualifying phase. In the return game of the second qualifying round at home against PSV Eindhoven Cömert scored his first Champions League goal. It was the first goal of the match as Basel went on to win 2–1 and they qualified to the next round. Here, however, they were knocked out and continued in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League. Basel won their group and advanced against APOEL and Eintracht Frankfurt to the quarter-finals. But were knocked out here by Shakhtar Donetsk. Cömert totaled _ appearances, 33 League games scoring two goals, three in the Cup, but without scoring, and 14 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League scoring the afore mentioned goal against PSV Eindhoven.

On 26 August, the club announced that Ciriaco Sforza had been hired as the first team manager as of 1 September 2020 for their 2020–21 season. The season started somewhat dispairing, four defeats, one draw and three victories in eight games. But they caught themselves, six wins in eleven games brought the team to second position in the table by the winter break. After the new year things went wrong again, five defeats and only one victory in the first nine games, so on 6 April 2021, Ciriaco Sforza was sacked "due to the recent poor results". Patrick Rahmen, the former assistant manager, took over as interim manager. Basel ended the league as runners-up. In the 2020–21 Swiss Cup the team started in the third round and they messed things up completely, a 6–2 defeat against lower tier Winterthur. In the shortened 2020–21 UEFA Europa League Basel advanced from the second qualifying round but were eliminated by CSKA Sofia in the play-off round. Basel lost 3–1 after full-time and failed to qualify for the group stage. Cömert had a total of 33 appearances, 30 in the League, scoring one goal, and three in the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League without scoring.

Patrick Rahmen remained Basel's head coach for their 2021–22 season. The team started well into the league season. Cömert scored on the second match day, it was the team's third goal, as they went on to win 6–1 against Sion. However, in the return game against Sion Cömert was sent off. In the 88th minute, shortly before Basel's winning goal, he could only catch the escaped Adryan with an emergency stop foul, for which he was shown the red card. This turned out to be a turning point in the players career. Following his red card in mid-October, the Swiss national team defender to wait for a further appearance in the Super League and this right up until the winter break. Instead of Cömert, FCB coach Patrick Rahmen relied on either veteran Fabian Frei or youngster Nasser Djiga in his central defense. Cömert mentioned in interviews that he would welcome a transfer abroad.

The club announced on 25 February 2022 that Cömert had transferred to Spanish club Valencia.

Between the years 2016 and 2017 and again from 2018 to 2022, Cömert played a total of 147 games for Basel scoring a total of seven goals. 101 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, 9 in the Swiss Cup, 30 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League, Europa League and Confererence League). He scored five goals in the domestic league and two in the European games.

Valencia
On 25 January 2022, Cömert moved abroad for the first time in his career, after signing a four-and-a-half-year contract with La Liga side Valencia CF, for a rumoured fee of €800,000. Cömert settled in slowly but surely before participating, in eight league matches in the 2021–22 La Liga season and 23 league games scoring one league goal in the 2022–23 La Liga season.

Loan to Nantes
On 26 August 2023, Nantes announced that they and Valencia had reached an agreement on the loan of Cömert for the 2023–24 Ligue 1 season. The contract contains an option to make the move permanent.

Loan to Valladolid
On 10 July 2024, Cömert moved to fellow Spanish top tier side Real Valladolid on loan for one year.

International career
Cömert was born in Rheinfelden, Switzerland and is of Turkish descent. Cömert played various international games for the Switzerland U15, U16 and U17 teams. He made his debut for the Switzerland U18 national team as centre-back on 22 September 2015 as they won 2–1 against the Denmark U19. On 30 August 2016 he played his first game for the Switzerland U19 and led the team as captain to a 1–0 victory against the Slovakia U19.

He made his debut for Switzerland national team on 18 November 2019 in a Euro 2020 qualifier against Gibraltar. He substituted Manuel Akanji in the 65th minute. In 2021, he was called up to the national team for the 2020 UEFA European Championship, where the team reached the quarter-finals.

Honours
FC Basel U18
 * Swiss U-18 Cup: 2014–15

FC Basel
 * Swiss Super League: 2015–16, 2016–17
 * Swiss Cup: 2016–17, 2018–19

Individual
 * Swiss Super League Team of the Year: 2019–20, 2020–21