Zak Andy Ansah (born 4 May 1994) is an English-born Ghanaian semi 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 for Faversham Town.

Club career

Arsenal

Ansah, the son of former

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

player

Andy Ansah Andrew Owusu Ansah (born 19 March 1969) is an English actor and former professional footballer. Playing career He played for six Football League teams in his career, most notably Southend United, where he played 180 games and scored 38 goals be ...

, had spells with Sydenham Sports club 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 ...

before joining the academy at

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

at the age of 10, who beat off interest from several other London-based clubs including

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

and

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

. Ansah made his way through the club's youth system, making his debut for their under-18 side at the age of just 14 and later impressing in the

NextGen Series The NextGen Series was a European football club cup competition for under-19 footballers. It was designed to provide players with the opportunity to match themselves against other elite European footballers of their agegroup in a competitive envi ...

youth competition. On 4 December 2012, with Arsenal already qualified for the next round of the competition, Ansah was named as a substitute for the club's Champions League group stage match against

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

but remained on the bench during a 2–1 defeat. He suffered a tear of his ACL in July 2013 that ruled him out for eight months, the second time he had suffered the injury, but returned to the development squad in March 2014, scoring in a 5–3 win over

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. At the end of the 2013–14 season, Ansah was released by Arsenal without making a first-team appearance.

Charlton Athletic

Ansah subsequently joined

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

side

on a two-year deal, working with under-21 development manager

Jason Euell Jason Joseph Euell (born 6 February 1977) is a former professional association football, footballer who played as either a Forward (association football), forward or a midfielder. He spent much of his career playing in the Premier League, with ...

. In March 2015, he joined

Football League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

until the end of the 2014–15 season, scoring on his debut for the club, the third goal in a 3–0 win over

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...

. He then scored Plymouth Argyle's first goal of their League 2 Play-off tie with

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.

, his goal making the scoreline 3–1 in Wycombe's favour at the time. He made a total of 10 appearances for the club, scoring twice. In August 2015, Ansah returned to League Two, joining Newport County on an initial one-month loan deal, making his debut in a 3–2 defeat to

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

. At the end of that loan period he returned to Charlton before rejoining Newport County for a second loan on 9 October 2015. On 24 October 2015 he scored his first two goals for Newport in a 4–1 win over Bristol Rovers. He returned to Charlton when his loan ended on 12 December 2015.

Woking

On 3 August 2016, Ansah joined

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

-based side

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

for the 2016–17

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

season. Three days later, Ansah made his Woking debut in a 3–1 home defeat against Lincoln City, playing the full 90 minutes. On 9 August 2016, Ansah scored his first Woking goal in a 2–2 draw with

Solihull Moors Solihull Moors Football Club is a professional football club based in Solihull, England. The club currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, after achieving promotion from the National Leag ...

, netting Woking's second. After suffering a long-term knee injury in October 2016, Ansah was forced out of the Woking team until March 2017. Returning in the Cards' 2–1 defeat against

North Ferriby United North Ferriby United Association Football Club was a semi-professional football club in North Ferriby, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. At the time of their demise they were members of the Northern Premier League and played at Grange Lane. F ...

, replacing

Ismail Yakubu Ismail Salami Yakubu, (born 8 April 1985) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Southern Football League side Merthyr Town. He has been capped for the England semi-professional team. Club career Barnet Yakubu was bo ...

in the 73rd minute. On 23 May 2017, it was announced that Ansah would leave Woking upon the expiry of his current deal in June 2017.

Hythe Town

Following his release from Woking, Ansah had a spell in Sunday league football, before joining

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

Division One South side, Hythe Town. He went onto score twice on his Hythe debut during their league tie against

East Grinstead Town East Grinstead Town Football Club is a association football, football club based in East Grinstead, West Sussex, England. They are currently members of the and play at East Court. History The club was established on 8 May 1890 as East Grinstea ...

, which resulted in a 3–2 victory. By March 2018, Ansah registered his tenth and eleventh goals of the season in the space of three months, inspiring a two-goal comeback against

Whyteleafe Whyteleafe is a village in the district of Tandridge, Surrey, England, with a few streets falling inside the London Borough of Croydon. The village, in a dry valley of the North Downs, has three railway stations (on two parallel lines). Neighbouri ...

. Following the conclusion of the 2017–18 campaign, Ansah registered his tally to 20 goals, after netting thirteen times in ten consecutive games. On 6 June 2018, Ansah agreed a new one-year deal with Hythe.

Herne Bay

Despite interest from

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 ...

and

sides, Ansah opted to join fellow Isthmian League side,

Herne Bay Herne Bay is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in South East England. It is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government ...

Faversham Town

On 17 November 2022, Ansah signed for

South East side Faversham Town.

International career

Ansah has represented England at both Under-16 and Under-17 level. In 2012, at the age of 18, Ansah was called up to the Ghana under-20 side for the first time but both Ansah and his father Andy blasted the

Ghana Football Association The Ghana Football Association (GFA) is a governing body of association football, based in Accra. Founded in 1957, it was dissolved with "immediate effect", according to Minister of Sport, Isaac Kwame Asiamah, on 7 June 2018, after the uncoverin ...

stating that they had not been notified of the call-up and had discovered it after a family friend had messaged to congratulate him. Ansah later committed his international future to Ghana and, the following year, he was called up to the provisional under-20 training squad to train with a view to being included in the squad for the

2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the nineteenth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. It ran from 21 June to 13 July 2013. At the FIFA Executive Meeting in Zürich on 3 March 2011, ...

but was later omitted from the final squad.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ansah, Zak 1994 births Living people Footballers from Sidcup Arsenal F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players Woking F.C. players Hythe Town F.C. players Herne Bay F.C. players Faversham Town F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Isthmian League players Ghanaian footballers Association football forwards