Ibrahim Mahama Atiku (born 20 May 1986) 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

Atiku was a member of a Ghana U17 squad that also featured

Michael Essien Michael Kojo Essien (born 3 December 1982) is a Ghanaian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder and is currently a member of Danish Superliga club FC Nordsjælland, Nordsjælland's coaching staff. He was ...

, and after their performances at the

1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship The 1999 FIFA U-16 World Championship, the eighth edition of the tournament, was held in the cities of Auckland, Christchurch, Napier, and Dunedin in New Zealand between 10 and 27 November 1999. Players born after 1 January 1982 could participate ...

, they went on trial with English club

Manchester United 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 City of Salford, Salford to ...

in April 2000. Both players were offered contracts by the club, but they were unable to obtain work permits, and the move fell through. Atiku ended up joining

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 2000, and in 2001 he made his first transfer away from Ghana as he was taken on loan by Israeli club

Hapoel Petah Tikva Hapoel Petah Tikva F.C. ( he, הפועל פתח תקווה) is an Israeli football club based in the city of Petah Tikva, currently playing in the Liga Leumit. Its most successful period was throughout the 1950s and 1960s, in which the club won ...

. until the end of that season and played one game 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 ...

with

Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan Hakoah Maccabi Amidar Ramat Gan Football Club ( he, מועדון כדורגל הכח מכבי עמידר רמת גן) is an Israeli football club based in Ramat Gan. The club is currently in Liga Alef South division and plays at the Winter Stadiu ...

. His loan ended and returned to Liberty, but his performances had already attracted Swedish club

Västerås Västerås ( , , ) is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 154,049. Västerås ...

which signed him in 2003. His next move was to Friska Viljor in 2005, and later played with

Assyriska The following is a List of Assyrian-Syriac football teams in Sweden. The Swedish football league system currently has ten levels, with the first five being governed by the Swedish Football Association. The sixth to tenth levels are controlled by ...

for first time in his career to

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 ...

League, where he had two full seasons with 48 caps and was considered a key-member of the squad. In April 2007, Atiku decided to separate parts and signed a six-month loan deal with rivals Assyriska at

Superettan Superettan (; meaning the super first (division)) is an association football league and the second highest league in the league system of Swedish men's football. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Al ...

club

IF Sylvia IF Sylvia is a Swedish football club based in Norrköping. The club, formed on 19 May 1922, is currently playing in the third tier of Swedish football, Division 1. The club is affiliated to the Östergötlands Fotbollförbund. In the early years ...

. It was reported that

Botev Plovdiv Profesionalen Futbolen Klub Botev, commonly referred to as Botev Plovdiv ( bg, „Ботев“ Пловдив, ) or simply Botev (within its associated city), is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, that competes ...

were interested in signing him and that Cypriot club

APEP Apep, also spelled Apepi or Aapep, ( Ancient Egyptian: ; Coptic: Erman, Adolf, and Hermann Grapow, eds. 1926–1953. ''Wörterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache im Auftrage der deutschen Akademien''. 6 vols. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'schen Buch ...

had offered him a three-year deal contract that he refused in order to take a chance with

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

side

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional F ...

. However, this move fell through and finally on 7 January 2009, Atiku joined Vasalund on a two-year contract. Searching for a way to leave Sweden after many years of services, it was then that Greek historical club

Ethnikos Piraeus Ethnikos Piraeus (Greek: Εθνικός Πειραιώς) is a Greek multisport club based in Piraeus. It was founded in 1923. The full name of the club is Ethnikos Omilos Filathlon Pireos/Phalirou or Ethnikos OFPF (Greek: Εθνικός Όμιλ ...

signed Atiku on a two-year deal in order to help them win promotion to

Superleague Greece The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

and went very close on this but financial problems bankrupted the club at the end of the season. Greek courts decided Ethnikos should pay €28,000 to Atiku due to his contract regulations but this decision failed to come through as the club went from professional to amateur and all its debts were erased. On 11 July 2011, Atiku joined English club

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

on a two-year contract following full preseason and played in all friendly games before the league season started. Following his move, Atiku was given the number 16 shirt for the club and appeared only in the reserve team. On 28 October and after he refused to join Newport Country on loan Swindon cancelled his contract at The County Ground by mutual consent after failing to break into the first team, with Atiku making a statement that he has no regrets after his Swindon exit.

International career

In 1999, Atiku represented the Ghana under-17 team at

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and later was part of the Ghana under-20 side at the

2001 FIFA World Youth Championship The 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Argentina between 17 June and 8 July 2001. The 2001 championship was the 13th contested. The tournament took part in six cities, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Mendoza, Rosario, Salta, and Mar de ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. In 2010, Atiku participated in training with the Ghana senior team but eventually was not invited to play any official games. He was later called up to the squad to play Nigeria in August 2011, but the match was called off due to the rioting in England.

Personal life

Atiku has held a Swedish passport since 13 May 2009.

References

External links

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Ghana U-17 SquadMove to VasterasIF Sylvia loanSigns for Ethnikos PiraeusPaolo Di Canio offers him Swindon contract
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atiku, Ibrahim 1983 births Living people Ghanaian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Ghana men's international footballers Olympic footballers for Ghana Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Liberty Professionals F.C. players Hapoel Petah Tikva F.C. players Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan F.C. players Västerås SK Fotboll players Assyriska FF players IF Sylvia players Vasalunds IF players Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Ghanaian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Israel Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Greece