David Accam (born 28 September 1990) is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Finnish club Inter Turku. He has won 11 caps for the

Ghana national team The Ghana national football team represents Ghana in men's international football, doing it since 1957. The team consists of twenty players including the technical team. The team is nicknamed the Black Stars after the Black Star of Africa in ...

Club career

Ghana

Accam did not belong to a club during the first twelve years of his life. He instead spent his time playing with friends on gravel pitches in the parks of

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

. There, he was spotted by a scout from Ghana-based Right to Dream Academy, where he would spend four years.

England

In 2008, Accam received a three-year scholarship to study at Hartpury College in England. He combined his time there with playing in the English lower leagues. After signing for English club Ledbury Town, Accam scored on his debut in December 2009. He then played for English club

Evesham United Evesham United Football Club are an English football club based in Evesham, Worcestershire. They reached the first round proper of the FA Cup for the first time in the 2008–09 season. In 2005, they entered the Southern League Premier Divisi ...

during the 2010–11 season while also featuring in the reserve team squad at Forest Green Rovers. The fact that Accam was in England on a student visa prevented him from playing for their first team, or any club in a higher division. After his time at Evesham United he took part in the Nike "The Chance" competition where he was one of eight winners who got to spend the 2011–2012 season with

Nike Football Academy The Nike Football Academy was an English football academy funded and administered by Nike, Inc. The academy had a revolving squad of unsigned under-20 players and was run with the intention of helping them find a professional club. The academy was ...

Sweden

In March 2012, Accam signed for Swedish third tier side Östersund. English manager Graham Potter was in charge of the club and he had already signed two other Ghanaians who were studying with Accam at Hartpury College. And after scouting him at the Nike Academy he brought Accam with him back to Sweden. Accam became an immediate success with his new team and several

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

clubs became interested in signing him for the summer transfer window. Accam was then signed by

club Helsingborg in August 2012, and was due to be loaned back to Östersund for the remainder of the season, but was recalled by Helsingborg for an upcoming Champions League qualifying match against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. The 2 million SEK transfer fee paid by Helsingborg was the highest ever for a player from the Swedish third tier. After scoring seventeen goals in twenty-six appearances, the club announced that Accam would be leaving Helsingborg to pursue opportunities elsewhere. After he made the announcement, Accam was linked with a move away from Tigres, Eintracht Frankfurt and VfB Stuttgart, a number of English clubs and CSKA Moscow. Accam rejected a move to CSKA Moscow, having insisted that Accam hadn't been in talks with the club.

Major League Soccer

Despite initially denying the move, Accam signed as a designated player with Chicago Fire of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

on 19 December 2014. After three seasons with Chicago, on 19 January 2018 Accam was traded to

Philadelphia Union The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in Chester, Pennsylvania. The Union compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the club began playing in 201 ...

in exchange for $900,000 in Targeted Allocation Money and $300,000 in General Allocation Money. In Accam's first season with Philadelphia, he was hampered by injuries and recorded just one goal in 23 appearances. His form picked up in his second season, scoring 4 goals with 2 assists in 11 games, however, he was traded to Columbus Crew SC on 8 May 2019. On 16 May, it was announced that Accam would be traded to Nashville SC, effective 1 January 2020, and would play out the 2019 season with the Crew. Following the 2021 season and his loan with Hammarby, Accam's contract option was declined by Nashville and he became a free agent.

Return to Sweden

On 28 January 2021, Accam joined Swedish side

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differe ...

on a 12-month loan with an option to transfer. He made his competitive debut for the side on 1 April against Trelleborgs FF in the quarter-final of the Svenska Cupen, the main domestic cup. His side won 3–2 after extra time, with Accam coming on as a substitute and scoring in his debut. On 30 May 2021, Accam won the

2020–21 Svenska Cupen The 2020–21 Svenska Cupen was the 65th season of the Svenska Cupen and the ninth season with the current format. Hammarby won the cup for the first time and secured a spot in the second qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference Le ...

with Hammarby IF, through a 5–4 win on penalties (0–0 after full-time) against BK Häcken in the final, where he scored his attempt. At the end of the year, it was announced that Accam would leave the club at the expiration of his loan deal.

Finland

In August 2022, Accam signed with Finnish side Inter Turku on a 4 month contract, with an option to extend it for an additional year.

International career

Accam received his first call-up to the

for a

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

qualification match against

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

on 24 March 2013, in which he was an unused substitute. On 12 May 2014, Accam was named in a provisional 26-man squad in the 2014 World Cup by Ghana manager James Kwesi Appiah. However, on 2 June 2014, Accam was left out of the World Cup squad. Accam expressed his disappointment of being dropped for the World Cup squad. On 15 November 2014, Accam made his international debut for Ghana in a 1–0 defeat to Uganda in a

2015 Africa Cup of Nations The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, Equatorial Guinea 2015 for sponsorship reasons, was the 30th staging of the Africa Cup of Nations, the international men's football championship of Africa. It was orga ...

qualifier, coming on as a 67th-minute substitute for

Christian Atsu Christian Atsu Twasam (10 January 1992 – ) was a Ghanaian professional footballer who primarily played as a winger, although he was also deployed as an attacking midfielder or left back. Atsu began his career with Porto, also spending a seas ...

. He was selected as part of Ghana's preliminary squad for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

Personal life

Accam received his U.S. green card in October 2015 which qualifies him as a domestic player for MLS roster purposes. Accam is a lifelong

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 ...

fan and is a devout

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

. He married Ghanaian women's international footballer

Florence Dadson Florence Dadson (born 23 April 1992) is a Ghanaian female footballer, who currently plays for the Gulf Coast Texans in the United States. Club career Dadson started her career in the Academy of Christ the King and joined Ghatel Ladies Cape Coas ...

on 3 January 2019 in Cape Coast, Ghana.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Hammarby IF * Svenska Cupen:

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 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Accam, David Living people 1990 births Ghanaian Christians Ghanaian footballers Footballers from Accra Association football wingers Right to Dream Academy players Ledbury Town F.C. players Evesham United F.C. players Forest Green Rovers F.C. players Nike Academy players Östersunds FK players Helsingborgs IF players Chicago Fire FC players Philadelphia Union players Columbus Crew players Nashville SC players Hammarby Fotboll players Southern Football League players Ettan Fotboll players Allsvenskan players Major League Soccer players Ghana international footballers 2015 Africa Cup of Nations players Ghanaian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in Sweden Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate soccer players in the United States Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Designated Players (MLS)