Alex Tchuimeni-Nimely (born 11 May 1991) is a Liberian former professional footballer who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He is the elder brother of

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

international Sylvanus Nimely. A former England under-20 international, he accepted a call-up to play for Liberia in October 2016. He began his career with

Mighty Barrolle Mighty Barrolle is a football club from Liberia based in Monrovia. They are one of the founding members of football in Liberia. Their home Stadium is the Doris Williams Stadium. Liberia's most famous footballer, George Weah, began his career a ...

(Liberia) and Coton de Garoua (Cameroon) before joining

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

in 2008. He spent six years at the club but only played one

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

game, and instead spent time on loan at

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

, and Crystal Palace. He signed with

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

for a short and unhappy spell in November 2014. After a year away from the game, he signed with Romanian club

Poli Timișoara __NOTOC__ Poli can refer to: Food * '' Puran Poli'', a poli made up of wheat flour and puran (sweet cooked gram paste) * A Marathi name for '' chapati'', a bread made up of wheat flour Organisations * FC Timişoara Romanian first league football ...

in February 2016. He moved on to Viitorul Constanța in July 2016, before signing with Norwegian side Stabæk in April 2017. He moved to Finland in February 2018 to play for Honka. He returned to England to sign for

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in ...

in August 2019.

Club career

Manchester City

Born in

Monrovia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As the ...

, Nimely began his career at

Liberian Premier League The Liberian First Division, formerly known as Liberian Premier League, is the highest division of football in Liberia. The first division league began in 1956 and have only once been won by a club outside Monrovia. It has been dominated by Migh ...

side

, who won the league title in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. He moved on to

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

ian side Coton de Garoua, who won the

Elite One The Championnat du Cameroun de football (also known as MTN Elite One since 2007 for sponsorship reasons) is the top division of association football in Cameroon, governed by the Cameroonian Football Federation since its establishment in 1961. P ...

title in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and 2007–08 seasons. He went on trial with

in December 2007 before going on to sign a four-year deal with the club in January 2008. He helped City win the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

in 2008. He made his

debut during a 6–1 win over

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

at Turf Moor on 3 April 2010. He signed a new four-year contract with the club the following month. He featured in a 1–1 draw with

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

at the

Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino The Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino ( en, Grande Torino Olympic Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium located in Turin, Italy. It is the home ground of Serie A club Torino Football Club. The stadium is located in Piazzale Grande Torino, in the dist ...

on 16 December 2010 that ensured City won their

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

group; he was taken off for Pablo Zabaleta on 61 minutes. On 17 September 2011, he signed a three-month loan deal with Championship side

. His first appearance came in the League Cup three days later as "Boro" were beaten 2–1 by Crystal Palace at

Selhurst Park Selhurst Park is a football stadium in Selhurst in the London Borough of Croydon which is the home ground of Premier League side Crystal Palace. The stadium was designed by Archibald Leitch and opened in 1924. It has hosted international footba ...

. He went on to make nine league appearances at the club, though did not start another game. On 12 January 2012, he signed a loan deal with

until the end of the 2011–12 season after manager Andy Thorn described him as a "hot young prospect". He scored his first goal in the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

on his "Sky Blues" debut in a 3–1 victory over former club Middlesbrough at the Ricoh Arena. On 10 January 2013, he signed on loan with Crystal Palace until the end of the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season, with manager Ian Holloway stating that "I've admired him for a couple of years". He made his debut two days later, coming on as a substitute in a 1–0 defeat at Burnley. He played only one further game for the club before returning to the

City of Manchester Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest ...

Port Vale

Nimely signed a contract with League One side

in November 2014 to keep him at Vale Park until the end of the 2014–15 season. He began training with

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

in January 2015. The next month he was disciplined by "Valiants" manager Rob Page after staying away from Vale Park without permission. In March, he again missed training without permission. Whilst still missing from training he offered to play for

for free but his offer was rejected by manager Tony Mowbray, who said the player did not perform well during his time at

when Mowbray was manager there. He was released in May 2015.

Romania

Nimely signed with Romanian

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

club

in February 2016. He scored three goals in ten games in the 2015–16 season. He signed with Viitorul Constanța in July 2016. He scored six goals in 21 matches in the 2016–17 season under the stewardship of manager Gheorghe Hagi.

Stabæk

Nimely signed a two-year contract with Norwegian

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

club Stabæk on 1 April 2017 after the club purchased him for an undisclosed fee. However the form of

Ohi Omoijuanfo Anthony Ohikhuaeme "Ohi" Omoijuanfo (born 10 January 1994) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Danish Superliga side Brøndby IF. Club career Lillestrøm On the last day of the 2010 season, Omoijuanfo became the ...

kept Nimley on the bench, and limited him to just two goals from one league start and 12 league substitute appearances. Nimely subsequently requested the termination of his contract so that he could find regular football elsewhere, and the club agreed to release him just ten weeks after he arrived in

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

FC Honka

After going on trial with

Azerbaijan Premier League The Azerbaijan Premier League ( az, Azərbaycan Premyer Liqası) is a professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Azerbaijan football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is conteste ...

club Kapaz PFK, Nimely signed for Veikkausliiga club

FC Honka FC Honka is a Finnish football club based in Espoo. It was founded in 1957 as Tapion Honka, and changed its name to FC Honka in 1975. The club currently play in the Finnish premier division (''Veikkausliiga''), having been promoted for the fir ...

on 7 February 2018. He made 25 appearances in the

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

season, helping Honka to a fifth-place finish.

Kettering Town

Nimely returned to England and joined

National League North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...

side

in August 2019.

International career

In May 2010, Nimely rejected a call-up from

for

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

qualifiers and declared to the press that he had chosen to play for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, as his father is English. He was called up to the under-20 squad for the 2009 U-20 World Cup in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. He scored a goal in a 1–1 draw with

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

at the

Mubarak International Stadium Egyptian Army Stadium – Suez ( arz, ستاد الجيش المصري بالسويس) is an all-seated association football stadium in Suez, Egypt. The stadium was built in 2009 as one of the venues for the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup, which was ho ...

on 2 October. This was the only goal England scored in the tournament, and they were eliminated at the Group Stage. He received his first call up to the under-21 side in November 2011 but was forced to withdraw from the squad due to injury. He accepted a call-up for

in October 2016, and was an unused substitute in a friendly match against

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

on 15 November 2016.

Personal life

Nimely was fined £600 and banned from driving for 18 months after admitting to driving with excess alcohol in January 2014; he had been charged after crashing his car in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. He has a younger brother, Sylvanus, who plays in Liberia and has been capped for the senior

squad.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nimely, Alex 1991 births Living people Sportspeople from Monrovia Liberian footballers English footballers England youth international footballers English people of Liberian descent Liberian people of English descent Liberian expatriate sportspeople in England Liberian expatriate footballers English expatriate footballers Black British sportspeople Association football forwards Expatriate footballers in Cameroon Expatriate footballers in Romania Expatriate footballers in Norway Expatriate footballers in Finland Mighty Barrolle players Coton Sport FC de Garoua players Manchester City F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players ACS Poli Timișoara players FC Viitorul Constanța players FC Honka players Kettering Town F.C. players Stabæk Fotball players Premier League players English Football League players Liga I players Eliteserien players Veikkausliiga players National League (English football) players