Saidy Janko (born 22 October 1995) is a 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 ...

who plays for Swiss club BSC Young Boys. Although Janko primarily recognised as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, he is equally capable of playing on the

right wing Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...

. Born in Switzerland, he played international football for Switzerland up to under-21 level before switching to play for the Gambia national team at senior level. Janko began his career with

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...

before signing for Manchester United in 2013. After a loan spell with Bolton Wanderers, Janko moved to Scottish club

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 ...

in 2015. He had a loan to Barnsley before moving to Saint-Étienne permanently in July 2017.

Club career

Manchester United

Janko began his career at

. He joined Manchester United on summer transfer deadline day in 2013. He was one of only three signings made by David Moyes during the 2013 summer transfer window. In his first season, he was voted the Reserve Player of the Year. On 26 August 2014, he made his first-team debut in a League Cup match against

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

, playing the first half before being substituted for fellow debutant

Andreas Pereira Andreas Hugo Hoelgebaum Pereira (born 1 January 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a attacking midfielder for Premier League club Fulham. Born in Duffel, Belgium, he began his youth career with nearby club Lommel. At the age of nin ...

as United lost 4–0. On 2 February 2015,

transfer deadline day A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer w ...

, Janko joined

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

club Bolton Wanderers on loan for the rest of the season, with Andy Kellett going in the opposite direction for the same period. He made his debut for the club on 10 February, starting in a 3–1 league win over Fulham at the Macron Stadium. He crossed to assist

Eiður Guðjohnsen Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen (transliterated as Eidur Smari Gudjohnsen; born 15 September 1978) is an Icelandic professional football coach and former player who played as a forward. Eiður saw his greatest success in England and Spain with Chels ...

's equaliser before half time, before scoring himself in the 80th minute from 25 yards out.

Celtic

On 1 July 2015,

announced that they had signed Janko on a four-year contract. He made his debut nine days later, coming on as a substitute for

Gary Mackay-Steven Gary Sean Mackay-Steven (born 31 August 1990) is a Scottish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Midfielder#Winger, winger for Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian F.C., Heart of Midlothian. He will become a free ...

75 minutes into Celtic's 1–0 win over Real Sociedad in a pre-season friendly at St. Mirren Park. Janko made his competitive debut on 1 August, coming on as a second-half substitute during Celtic's 2–0 win over Ross County in the opening league match of the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

. On 31 August 2016, Janko joined Championship club Barnsley on a one-year loan deal. He scored on his debut in a 4–0 away win against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

on 13 September.

Saint-Étienne

On 7 July 2017, Janko left Celtic for French Ligue 1 club Saint-Étienne, signing a four-year contract.

Porto

Janko moved to Portuguese club FC Porto on a five-year contract on 17 June 2018. He returned to the EFL Championship on 31 August that year, joining

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

on loan for the 2018–19 season. On 1 July 2019, Janko entered football in his native country for the first time in his career, being loaned to Young Boys for the Swiss Super League season. He scored his first goal on 14 September in the second round of the Swiss Cup, in an 11–2 win at fifth-tier FC Freienbach. In total Saidy played 46 official matches, starting 38 of them, as they won the

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

( Super League and

Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

Valladolid

On 1 October 2020,

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club c ...

signed Janko on a four-year contract to end in 2024, for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

24 days later in a 2–0 home loss to

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually abbreviated to Alavés, is a Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Founded on 1 July 1920 as Sport Friends Club, it ...

. On 27 June 2022,

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

announced the signing of Janko on a season-long loan, with an option to buy at the end of the spell.

Young Boys

On 30 June 2023, Real Valladolid announced that Janko had joined Swiss side Young Boys, where he had previously played on loan while a Porto player, on a permanent basis.

International career

Janko was born in

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

to a Gambian father and an Italian mother. He was a youth international for Switzerland from 2012 to 2015, before opting to represent the Gambia in 2021. He made his debut for the Gambia national team in a 2–0 friendly loss to

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

on 9 October 2021. He played in the

2021 Africa Cup of Nations The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (also referred to as AFCON 2021 or CAN 2021), known as the TotalEnergies 2021 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 33rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's foo ...

, his national team's first continental tournament, where they reached the quarter-finals.

Personal life

He is the brother of fellow professional footballer Lenny Janko.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Celtic *

: 2015–16, 2016–17 *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2016–17 Young Boys * Swiss Super League: 2019–20 * Swiss Cup: 2019–20 Individual * Denzil Haroun Reserve Player of the Year: 2013–14

References

External links