Daniel Amartey (born 21 December 1994) is a Ghanaian 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 plays as a defender or

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 ...

for

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 ...

club Leicester City and the Ghana national team. A graduate of International Allies' youth academy, Amartey played for Djurgården and

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

before joining Leicester City in 2016.

Club career

Djurgårdens IF

Amartey started out playing for second-tier club International Allies in Ghana where he was spotted as a sixteen-year-old by

Magnus Pehrsson Karl Magnus Pehrsson (born 25 May 1976) is a Swedish football manager and former professional player who is the Director of Football at Spanish club Vélez CF. Club career Pehrsson started his career in IFK Lidingö. He played for Djurgårde ...

who was on a scouting trip in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

during his preparation to take over as manager of

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is named ...

. When Pehrsson became manager he secured the transfer rights for Amartey from the day he turned 18. To help prepare Amartey for his future permanent move to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

in 2013, the club brought him over for shorter periods of time in both 2011 and 2012 where he got to play for the club's U21 team. Amartey made his Svenska Cupen debut on 3 March 2013 against Umeå FC. He then made his league debut in the

2013 Allsvenskan The 2013 Allsvenskan, part of the 2013 Swedish football season, was the 89th season of Allsvenskan since its establishment in 1924. The 2013 fixtures were released on 14 December 2012. The season started on 31 March 2013 and ended on 3 November 2 ...

opening game away against Helsingborgs IF on 31 March. Amartey was praised by the media for his strong start to the 2013 season, and foreign clubs like

FC Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhi ...

and 1. FC Kaiserslautern started to scout him. On 26 May he scored his first ever goal for the club when he headed home the 1–1 equalizer in the

2013 Svenska Cupen Final The 2013 Svenska Cupen final was played on 26 May 2013. The match was played at the national stadium Friends Arena in Solna which was completed in November 2012 and hosted the final for the first time. The final made its return to Solna for the fi ...

which Djurgården eventually lost against IFK Göteborg on penalties. After his first season in the Swedish league as an eighteen-year-old Amartey was ranked as the 10th-best player in the league by newspaper

Expressen ''Expressen'' (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden, the other being '' Aftonbladet''. ''Expressen'' was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or "''Expressen'' to your rescue". ...

and 18th best by

Aftonbladet ''Aftonbladet'' (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lars Johan H ...

. In November 2013 Amartey confirmed that he was in talks with

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

over a possible move to the English club.

Copenhagen

In July 2014, Amartey moved to

F.C. Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen ( da, Football Club København, ), commonly known as FC København, FC Copenhagen, Copenhagen or simply FCK, is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on ...

for a fee of €2.5 million plus add-ons, and made his Superliga-debut on 20 July in a match against

Silkeborg IF Silkeborg Idrætsforening, (; commonly known as Silkeborg IF or SIF in short) is a professional football club based in Silkeborg, Denmark. The club was founded in 1917, reached the highest level of Danish football in 1987, and afterwards became ...

Leicester City

On 22 January 2016, Amartey joined

side Leicester City on a four-and-a-half-year contract for a fee around the region of up to £6 million. In his first season in his new country, Amartey featured five times as his team Leicester City won the Premier League title. He made his debut for the club on 27 February 2016, in 1–0 home league win over Norwich City. In the 2016–17 season, Amartey became a first team regular following the departure of

N'Golo Kanté N'Golo Kanté (born 29 March 1991) is a French professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for club Chelsea and the France national team. Considered by many to be one of the world's best midfielders, Kanté is widely praised ...

. partnering teammate

Danny Drinkwater Daniel Noel Drinkwater (born 5 March 1990) is an English professional footballer who is a midfielder. He is currently a free agent. Having come through the youth academy at Manchester United, he spent time on loan with Huddersfield Town, Cardif ...

in the central midfield role. While his workrate roughly equalled Kanté's, he has been unable to match his tackles and interceptions. On 14 September 2016, Amartey started in his Champions League debut for Leicester in a 3–0 away win over

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

in the group stage. Amartey scored his first goal for Leicester in an 88th-minute equaliser away at

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

on 17 December 2016, salvaging a 2–2 draw. On 8 February 2017, just over 12 hours after returning to Leicester from international duty, Amartey played 120 minutes (including AET) in a 3–1

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

fourth-round replay win over Derby County. In October 2018, Amartey broke his ankle in a game against West Ham United, ruling him out for the rest of the 2018–19 season. Out of action for nearly a year, the closest Amartey came to a first team return was making the bench for an

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

match against Luton Town in September 2019. He made his first team return almost two years after his injury in an

match 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 ...

on 23 September 2020, which Leicester lost 2–0. Four days later he made his Premier League return when he started away at

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 a 5–2 win. On 18 February 2021, Amartey started in his

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 ...

debut for Leicester in a 0–0 away draw against Slavia Prague in the first leg of the Europa League round of 32 tie. On 6 March 2021, Amartey scored his first goal for the Foxes in over four years, heading in a late winner to seal a 2–1 away league win over Brighton & Hove Albion. Amartey and Leicester started the 2021–22 season with the

2021 FA Community Shield The 2021 FA Community Shield (also known as The FA Community Shield supported by McDonald's for sponsorship reasons) was the 99th FA Community Shield, an annual football match played between the winners of the previous season's Premier League, Man ...

against

. Amartey played the full match as Iheanacho scored the winning goal, an 89th-minute penalty against his former club.

International career

In May 2012 Amartey made his debut for the

Ghana national under-20 football team Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

in a game against

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. He was also selected to play in the

2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the nineteenth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. It ran from 21 June to 13 July 2013. At the FIFA Executive Meeting in Zürich on 3 March 2011, ...

but Djurgården wanted to keep him in Sweden since the tournament clashed with the

season. In January 2015, Amartey played in all the group matches for

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, where the Black Stars finished as runners-up. He played six times at the

2017 Africa Cup of Nations The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2017 or CAN 2017), known as the Total 2017 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champions ...

, lasting 90 minutes in every match to help Ghana finish fourth in the tournament. His performances saw him named in the CAF Team of the tournament. Amartey featured in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in

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 ...

whom the Ghana national team was eliminated in the early stage of the competition.

Controversy

On 15 May 2021, following Leicester City's FA Cup final victory over Chelsea, Amartey was filmed picking up a Chelsea pennant in the Leicester dressing room and throwing it over his shoulder to the floor in a video that went viral. He received criticism and backlash from many social media users, who deemed the gesture disrespectful. Leicester City later issued an apology to Chelsea, who accepted.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Copenhagen *

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

: 2015–16 * Danish Cup: 2014–15, 2015–16 Leicester City *

: 2015–16 *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

FA Community Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier Le ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Ghana *

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 ...

runner-up:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Leicester City F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Amartey, Daniel 1994 births Living people Footballers from Accra Ghanaian footballers Ghana international footballers Association football midfielders International Allies F.C. players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players F.C. Copenhagen players Leicester City F.C. players Allsvenskan players Danish Superliga players Premier League players 2015 Africa Cup of Nations players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Ghanaian expatriate footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Sweden Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in England Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden