Alexander Nyarko (born 15 October 1973) is a Ghanaian former 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 le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Nyarko started his career in Ghana, and in 1995 he joined

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

from Sportul Studenţesc. Nyarko joined

for their 1995–96 season under head coach

Claude Andrey Claude "Didi" Andrey (born 13 June 1951) is a former Swiss footballer, who most recently managed Yverdon-Sport FC in the Challenge League. Andrey took over FC Basel for their 1993–94 season. His team included the likes of Swiss internatio ...

. He played his debut for his new club in the home game in the

St. Jakob Stadium The St. Jakob Stadium was a football stadium in Basel, Switzerland and the former home of Swiss club FC Basel. It was built in view of the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted several important matches, inc ...

the

1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup was the first edition of the tournament administered by the UEFA. It saw Strasbourg and Bordeaux win their semi-finals to advance to the UEFA Cup, the latter eventually finishing runners-up. It also saw English repre ...

match on 8 July 1995 as Basel were beaten 3–2 by

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the D ...

. After playing one test game and another UEFA Intertoto Cup match, he played his domestic league debut for the team in the home game on 19 July as Basel won 2–1 against

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

. He scored his first goal for the team on 5 November in the away game in the

Cornaredo Stadium Cornaredo Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Lugano, Switzerland. It is used mostly for football matches. It is a home ground of FC Lugano. The stadium is able to hold 15,000 people and was built in 1951. The stadium has 5,000 seats and 10, ...

against

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

. It was the only goal of the game as Basel won 1–0. He played for the team for two seasons and during this time Nyarko played a total of 83 games for Basel scoring a total of 15 goals. 55 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, six in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

, five in the

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

and 17 were friendly games. He scored eight goals in the domestic league, two in the cup, one in the UIC and the other four were scored during the test games. He then moved to Karlsruher SC in Germany and then two seasons for

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (, commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply Lens) is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department. Its nickname, ''les sang et or'' (''the blood and gold''), come ...

in France. While at Lens he played as a substitute in the final as they won the 1998–99 Coupe de la Ligue. In 2000 he joined

Everton F.C. Everton Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Liverpool that competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club was a founder member of the Football League in 1888 and has compe ...

for £4.5 million, signing a contract until June 2005. He scored his first and only goal for Everton against Tottenham Hotspur in September 2000. He is infamous for an incident during the 2000–01 season where during a game against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

a fan came on the pitch and offered him his own royal blue Everton shirt, signalling that Nyarko was not good enough to wear the colours of Everton. After the fan was escorted away by police, Nyarko requested to be substituted and transferred. Eventually, he went on loan to French club

AS Monaco Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club SA, commonly referred to as AS Monaco () or Monaco, is a professional football club based in Monaco that is member of French Football Federation (FFF) and competes in Ligue 1, the top tier of Fre ...

just days later for the rest of the season, and then had a loan spell at

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

for the entire 2002–03 season. Nyarko returned to Everton for the 2003–04 season and made his return to the first team in a

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

tie against

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

. A few days later he made his first league appearance of the season against

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

and almost gave Everton the lead but his shot came back off the crossbar. He went on to make 11 league appearances for the Merseyside club that season, but was released after the season because his work permit expired and could not be renewed. Nyarko then spent six months out of football, before joining

IK Start Idrettsklubben Start (or simply IK Start, translates to The sports club Start ) is a Norwegian football club from the city of Kristiansand that currently plays in the 1. divisjon, the second tier of the Norwegian football league system. The clu ...

in March 2005. He was, however, released by the club after an unauthorized trip to his family in Switzerland. Nyarko joined Swiss team

Yverdon Sport FC Yverdon-Sport FC is a Swiss football team from the town of Yverdon-les-Bains. The club plays in a green and white strip, and were promoted from the Swiss 1. Liga Promotion, the third tier of Swiss football after winning in the 2020–21 season. ...

in June 2006. He was released again in December 2007 and retired.

International career

Nyarko was capped for Ghanaian Olympic team at 1992 Summer Olympics, and won a bronze medal. He also played for Ghana in 1998 and 2000

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

Honours

Lens *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Football in France, French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was est ...

: 1998–99

References

External links