John Akin Salako (born 11 February 1969) is an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach, former professional player, and sports television pundit. Born in Nigeria, Salako 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 ...

from 1986 until 2005. He played in the

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 ...

for

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

, and in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for Swansea City,

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

and

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

. He represented

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at senior level, earning five caps, all during 1991 while he was a Crystal Palace player. From 2009 to 2015, alongside his punditry work, Salako coached within Crystal Palace's youth academy as well as for a spell with the first team.

Playing career

A fast and imaginative player, Salako began his career at

in the mid 1980s, and was their regular left winger by the time they won promotion to the First Division in 1989. He was also in the side for the

1990 FA Cup Final The 1990 FA Cup Final was a football match played to determine to winners of the 1989–90 FA Cup. It was contested by Manchester United and Crystal Palace at Wembley Stadium, London, England. The match finished 3–3 after extra time. Bryan R ...

, picking up a runners-up medal after they drew 3–3 with

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 ...

before losing the replay 1–0. A year later, he helped Palace finish third in the league. Late in the 1990–91 season, he memorably scored twice for Palace in their 3–0 home win over Manchester United in the league. However, a serious knee injury suffered in a league match against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

ruled him out until the following season, when Palace were founder members of the

FA 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 ...

but finished the season relegated, with Salako often being positioned as a centre forward alongside Chris Armstrong after the sale of

Ian Wright Ian Edward Wright (born 3 November 1963) is an English television and radio personality and former professional footballer. He works as a pundit for BBC Sport and ITV Sport. Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal ...

and

Mark Bright Mark Abraham Bright (born 6 June 1962) is an English sports correspondent and former footballer. Born to a Gambian father and English mother, he was adopted into a foster family in Stoke-on-Trent at an early age. He played non-league football ...

. Salako helped them get straight back up, but they went down again the following season despite reaching the semi-finals of both cups. Salako left Palace in the summer of 1995, signing for

. He spent three seasons at Coventry, spending a brief period on loan at

, before signing for

in Division Two. At Fulham he scored twice, once in the league against Macclesfield, and again in the League Cup against Cardiff City. After

he played for

and

, before ending his career at

Coaching career

He has coached

under 16 team, working with former teammate Bright. On 8 August 2015, he was announced as Crystal Palace first team coach. In 2005, Salako was voted into Palace's Centenary XI.

Media career

Salako previously worked as a matchday correspondent on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

Personal life

As a teenager, he lived in

Westerham Westerham is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 3.4 miles east of Oxted and 6 miles west of Sevenoaks, adjacent to the Kent border with both Greater London and Surrey. It is recorded as early as t ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and was a student at The

Wildernesse School The Knole Academy is a secondary school in Sevenoaks, Kent, England that was opened in September 2010, as a result of the amalgamation of the Wildernesse School (for boys) and Bradbourne School (for girls). The site The former Bradbourne site w ...

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lon ...

. His brother Andy Salako was also a professional footballer.

Honours

As a player

Crystal Palace *

Football League First Division 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 ...

: 1993–94 * Football League Second Division play-offs: 1989 Fulham *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

: 1998–99 Charlton Athletic * Football League First Division: 1999–2000 Reading * Football League Second Division runner-up: 2001–02 individual * Crystal Palace Young Player of the Year: 1986–87, 1987–88

References

External links

*
Official Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salako, John 1969 births Living people English footballers England international footballers English people of Nigerian descent English people of Yoruba descent Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Premier League players English Football League players Brentford F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Reading F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Nigerian emigrants to the United Kingdom Yoruba sportspeople People from Westerham Sportspeople from Ibadan Association football midfielders Crystal Palace F.C. non-playing staff FA Cup Final players Association football coaches