Ebenezer Kofi Assifuah-Inkoom (born 3 July 1993) 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

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 ...

for

Malaysia Super League The Malaysia Super League ( ms, Liga Super Malaysia) is the men's top professional football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP), now known as the Malays ...

club

Kedah Darul Aman Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman (Islam), Aman and historically as Queda, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area ...

. Before moving to Swiss club

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 Pl ...

, he played for

Liberty Professionals Liberty Professionals Football Club is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Dansoman, Accra. History Liberty Professionals, was founded in 1996 by Accra-based businessmen Felix Ansong and Alhaji Sly Tetteh. The club was one of the earl ...

in his home country of Ghana. Assifuah has been described as a striker with power and scoring ability. Although he naturally is right-footed, he has successfully used his left foot. Assifuah is a former Ghana international. At youth level, he played for the Ghana U20s. In 2016, he won this first cap for the Ghana national team, and was selected for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.

Club career

Early career

Assifuah began his career with the

Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

team

Sekondi Eleven Wise Sekondi Eleven Wise Football Club is a Ghanaian professional association football club, based in Sekondi Sekondi-Takoradi is a city in Ghana comprising the twin cities of Sekondi and Takoradi. It is the capital of Sekondi – Takoradi Metropo ...

where he attracted attention after scoring eight times in the Ghanaian Division One League. At the end of the 2011–12 Poly Tank Division One League, and after his success in the games of the 2013 African U-20 Championship qualification, Assifuah was highly sought after by top teams in Ghana including

Ebusua Dwarfs Cape Coast Mysterious Ebusua Dwarfs is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Cape Coast. The club competes in the Ghana Premier League, the Premier division on the Ghanaian football pyramid, and hold home games at Cape Coast Sports St ...

Liberty Professionals

he signed a three-year contract with premiership side Liberty Professionals. He took some time to settle at Liberty Professionals after his move from Sekondi Eleven Wise. On the 2012

Boxing Day Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor, today Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday. It ...

, he rediscovered his form and scored four goals against

Berekum Chelsea Berekum United Football Club is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Berekum, Bono Region, previously known as Bechem Chelsea Football Club. They compete in the Ghanaian top-flight league called the First Capital Premier League. Hist ...

. Prior to the end of the African Youth Championship, Assifuah had attracted the attention scouts of Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

side

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

, and a move was deemed likely.

FC Sion

After being top goal scorer at the FIFA U-20 Championship 2013 in Turkey he moved to the Swiss side

signing a five-year contract. Assifuah scored his first goal in the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

in his second game against leaders

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

on 28 September 2013. On 1 October 2015, Assisfuah was in the headlines at Anfield after scoring the equaliser for his team in the Eurpoa League match against Liverpool, that was his debut goal in any European club competition. In the

2014–15 Swiss Cup The 2014–15 Swiss Cup was the 90th season of Switzerland's annual football cup competition. The competition started on 23 August 2014 with the first games of Round 1 and ended on 7 June 2015 with the Final, won by Sion. As winners of the compe ...

final, He played 75 minutes of the match as FC Sion scored FC Basel 3–0 to win the cup. In 2017 he left the club after playing for the club for four years.

Le Havre

Assifuah joined

Le Havre AC Le Havre Athletic Club (; commonly referred to as Le Havre) is a French association football club based in Le Havre, Normandy. The club was founded as an athletics and rugby club in 1872, making Le Havre AC the oldest professional French foo ...

on 18 January 2017 and signed a three-and-half-year deal. In June 2020, he left club after playing a total of 68 matches in all competitions for the club amid several injuries whilst playing for the

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

side.

Pau

On 5 June 2020, he signed on a two-year deal contract with newly promoted Ligue 2 side Pau . He signed for the club upon the request of new coach

Didier Tholot Didier Tholot (born 2 April 1964) is a French former professional footballer who turned to management in 2002, and is currently manager of Pau FC. Whilst at Bordeaux he played in the 1996 UEFA Cup Final. Playing career Tholot was born in Feurs ...

, with whom he played under at Sion in Switzerland between 2014 and 2016. On 9 March 2022, Assifuah suffered a serious

anterior cruciate ligament injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during inju ...

, which ruled him out for the rest of the 2021-22 season. In July 2022, Assifuah's contract with Pau terminated and both parties decided to path ways.

International career

African Youth Championship

Assifuah was part of the Ghana Under-20 national team during the qualification rounds for the 2013 African U-20 Championship. He scored Ghana's second goal against

Uganda national under-20 football team The Uganda national under-20 football team is the under-20 youth team for national football in Uganda. The team is controlled by the Federation of Uganda Football Associations. Honours *CECAFA U-20 Championship: **Winners (4): 1973, 2006, 2010, 202 ...

in October 2012. In 2013, coach

Sellas Tetteh Sellas Tetteh Teivi (born 12 December 1956) is a Ghanaian professional football coach and former player. Early and personal life Sellas Tetteh Teivi was born on 12 December 1956 in Adabraka. His father was Mensah Teivi, a mechanic, and his mothe ...

called him up, along with Liberty Professional teammates Kennedy Ashia and Kwame Boahene, for the Ghana Under-20 national team ahead of the 2013 tournament in

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. During the competition he scored in every group match game which helped push the team into the finals with

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 ...

and Ghana finished as runners up of the competition. With Egyptian player Kahraba he was 2nd joint top scorer of the tournament.

FIFA U-20 Championship, Turkey 2013

Assifuah was a member of the Ghana Under-20 national team that took part in the 2013 FIFA U-20 tournament in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. He finished the tournament as the leading goal scorer with 6 goals.

Senior Ghana National Team

Assifuah made his first appearance for the senior

Ghana national football 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 ...

as a starter in 0–0

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 ...

qualifying tie with

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

on 27 March 2016. Later he was selected for 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, but remained on the bench throughout while his team finished in fourth place.

Honours

Sion *

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 ...

: 2014-15 Ghana U20 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 whe ...

third place:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

* African U-20 Championship runner-up:

Individual * FIFA U-20 World Cup Golden Boot:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Assifuah, Ebenezer 1993 births Living people Footballers from Accra Association football forwards Ghanaian footballers Ghana international footballers Ghana under-20 international footballers Ghanaian expatriate footballers Liberty Professionals F.C. players FC Sion players Le Havre AC players Pau FC players Swiss Super League players Ligue 2 players 2013 African U-20 Championship players Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in France Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players