Ignatius Ganago (born 16 February 1999) is a Cameroonian 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 lea ...

who plays as a forward for

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

club

New England Revolution The New England Revolution are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the Greater Boston area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. It is on ...

, on loan from

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

club

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

and the Cameroon national team.

Club career

Early career

Ganago was part of the EFCB junior academy in Cameroon before joining

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

win against

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

on 9 September 2017, coming on for

Mario Balotelli Mario Balotelli Barwuah (; ''Birth name, né'' Barwuah; born 12 August 1990) is an Italian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for club Genoa CFC, Genoa. Balotelli started his ...

in the 74th minute, during which he also scored his first goal for the club.

Lens

On 10 July 2020, Ganago signed for newly promoted Ligue 1 club

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...

Nantes

On 1 September 2022, the last day of the 2022 summer

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

, Ganago moved to Lens' league rivals

on a four-year contract. The transfer fee paid to Lens was reported as €3.5 million excluding bonuses.

New England Revolution

On 10 January 2025, it was announced that Ganago would be joining

on a six-month loan with an option to purchase, and the potential to extend the loan by six additional months if playing-time conditions are met. Ganago made his MLS debut, and recorded his first start for the Revolution, in the 2025 season opener, a 0-0 draw against

Nashville SC Nashville Soccer Club is an American professional soccer club based in Nashville, Tennessee. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team spent two seasons in the USL Championship before joining ...

on 22 February. He scored his first Revolution goal, and recorded his first Revolution assist, on 19 April against NYCFC. He subsequently received MLS Team of the Matchday honors for week 9.

International career

Ganago debuted for the senior Cameroon national team in a friendly 0–0 tie with

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

on 12 October 2019. Later that month his club Nice refused to release him for the Under-23 AFCON tournament.

Personal life

Ganago's four-year-old daughter died on 13 February 2023, following an illness.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Cameroon *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

bronze:

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

References

External links

Profile
at the FC Nantes website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ganago, Ignatius Living people 1999 births Footballers from Douala Cameroonian men's footballers 21st-century Cameroonian sportsmen Men's association football forwards Cameroon men's international footballers 2021 Africa Cup of Nations players Ligue 1 players Championnat National 2 players OGC Nice players RC Lens players FC Nantes players New England Revolution players Cameroonian expatriate men's footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in France Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States