Ibrahim Anyars Tanko (born 25 July 1977) is a Ghanaian retired

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 mostly as a second striker or an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

who last served as the head coach of the local Black Stars -

Ghana A' national football team The Ghana A' national football team is the local national football team of Ghana and is open only to indigenous domestic league players. The team represents Ghana at the WAFU Nations Cup and the African Nations Championship and is controlled b ...

. He played most of his 15-year professional career – blighted by injuries – in Germany, with

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

and

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

. At the international level, he represented the

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 ...

Club career

Borussia Dortmund

Born in

Kumasi Kumasi (historically spelled Comassie or Coomassie, usually spelled Kumase in Twi) is a city in the Ashanti Region, and is among the largest metropolitan areas in Ghana. Kumasi is located in a rain forest region near Lake Bosomtwe, and is the ...

, Tanko signed with German side

from

King Faisal Babes F.C. King Faisal Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ashanti, Ghana. The club competes in the Ghana Premier League, Glo Premier League. They were represented at the 2006 FIFA World Cup by left-ba ...

at age 17, making him the third youngest player to appear professionally for them behind

Nuri Şahin Nuri Şahin (born 5 September 1988) is a football manager and former professional player who played as a central midfielder. He is the manager of Antalyaspor. He began his career at Borussia Dortmund, spending six years there – including a ye ...

and

Lars Ricken Lars Ricken (born 10 July 1976) is a German retired footballer who played as a midfielder. Since 2008, he has been a youth coordinator at Borussia Dortmund. He represented Borussia Dortmund during his entire professional career, which spanned 15 ...

. He made his

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

debut on 24 September 1994 in a 5–0 home win against

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB Stu ...

, and finished his first season with 14 games and one goal. Tanko participated in three matches, all as a late substitute, in Borussia's 1996–97 UEFA Champions League victorious run. Injuries and loss of form led to an eventual demotion to the Borussia Dortmund II where he played 24 league matches from 1998 to 2000. He made another 13 league appearances before leaving the club in 2001. He was also suspended and eventually released after testing positive for

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...

. During his seven-year period with the club, he made 71 appearances in all competitions for the first team and scored three goals.

SC Freiburg

In January 2001, Tanko joined

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

, scoring in his fourth game to help to a 3–1 success at

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seas ...

, but also missed a great part of the following campaign due to a severe

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

injury, as the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

team dropped down to the 2. Bundesliga. At Freiburg, Tanko's output improved slightly, and he played a career-high 27 matches (with two goals) in 2005–06 2. Bundesliga. However, he only appeared once the following season, and retired at 30.

International career

Tanko earned nine

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

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 ...

, the last coming on 10 October 2004 – after an absence of eight years – in a

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

qualifier In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...

against the

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Coaching career

On 1 July 2007, Tanko was named assistant coach for Freiburg's reserves, leaving after 18 months together with

Karsten Neitzel Karsten Neitzel (born 17 December 1967) is a former German football player and former manager. He has served as position assistant coach for Head Coach Michael Feichtenbeiner of Malaysia Super League club Selangor. Managerial career VfL Bochu ...

J1 League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the J ...

Urawa Red Diamonds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J ...

, and re-uniting with former Freiburg boss

Volker Finke Volker Finke (born 24 March 1948) is a German football manager. He was the coach of SC Freiburg for 16 years. Coaching career On 6 December 2008, Japanese club Urawa Red Diamonds announced they signed a contract with Finke as head coach until ...

in the same capacity. In the 2011 summer, he began working under

Ståle Solbakken Ståle Solbakken (born 27 February 1968) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Norway national team. During his playing career, Solbakken was named 1995 Norwegian midfielder of the year, and h ...

at 1. FC Köln. On 4 June 2013, Tanko resumed his partnership with Finke as the former joined the latter's coaching staff in the Cameroon national side. In January 2012 he was appointed as the Ghana national team's head

, prior to that year's

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 ...

. In May 2017, Tanko was appointed as the first assistant coach for the Ghana national team to

James Kwesi Appiah James Kwesi Appiah (born 30 June 1960), also known as Akwasi Appiah, is a Ghanaian football coach and former player who played as a left back. He is currently the head coach of Kenpong Football Academy. Early life and education Appiah was born ...

. After serving in that role two years, he was promoted to serve as the head coach of the Ghana national U-23, the Black Meteors in November 2018 after Yussif Abubakar died. He led the team to the

Africa U-23 Cup of Nations The Total Africa U-23 Cup of Nations (known as the CAF U-23 Championship until 2015) is the main international football competition for CAF nations, played by under 23 years old players. It is held every four years with the top three teams qualif ...

tournament, Egypt 2019, for the first time in 12 years. The team missed out on qualifying for the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

after losing on penalty shout out to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. In January 2020, Tanko was appointed as the head coach of the

, the local Black Stars. After 5 months in charge of the team, he was replaced by

Annor Walker Daniel Annor Walker is a Ghanaian football coach who currently coaches the Accra Great Olympics and the Ghana A' national football team (Local Black Stars). He previously coached Ghanaian teams; Nania FC, Kpando Hearts of Lions and Berekum Ch ...

. On Tuesday, 28 June 2022, Tanko was appointed the Head coach of the Black Meteors by the Executive Council of the Ghana Football Association.

Personal life

Tanko is married with three children. He is a devout

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

and speaks French, English and German.

Honours

Borussia Dortmund *

: 1994–95, 1995–96 *UEFA Champions League: 1996–97

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanko, Ibrahim 1977 births Living people Footballers from Kumasi Ghanaian footballers Association football forwards King Faisal Babes FC players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Borussia Dortmund players Borussia Dortmund II players SC Freiburg players Ghana international footballers 1996 African Cup of Nations players Ghanaian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Doping cases in association football