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

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player, coach, and sports television pundit. Born in Nigeria, Salako played as a winger or

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

between 1986 and 2005. He played in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

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 buildin ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Charlton, south-east London, England. The team compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Their home ground is ...

, and in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

for

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club ( ; ) is a Welsh professional football club based in Swansea, Wales. It competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Swansea have played their home matches at ...

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

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

and

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

. Salako represented

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

at senior level, earning five caps, all during 1991 while he was a Crystal Palace player. In 2005, Salako was voted into Palace's Centenary XI.

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 ...

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

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

before losing the replay 1–0. A year later, Salako helped Palace achieve their highest ever finish of third in the top flight in the 1990–91 season and he memorably scored twice for the Eagles in a 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, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

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

FA Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football ...

. They 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 media personality and former professional footballer. Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal as a forward, spending six years with the former and seven year ...

and

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

. 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, including a brief spell 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 Fulham, he played for

and

, before ending his career at

Coaching career

He has previously coached the

under 16 team between 2009 and 2015, working with former teammate Mark Bright. On 8 August 2015, he was announced as Crystal Palace first team coach, but left after only one season.

Media career

Salako previously worked as a matchday correspondent on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

Personal life

As a teenager, he lived in

Westerham Westerham is a town and civil parishes in England, 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. I ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and was a student at The Wildernesse School in

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 Lo ...

. His brother

Andy Salako Andrew Salako (born 8 November 1972) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played in the Football League, as a defender. He is the brother of former England international John Salako John Akin Salako (born 11 February 1969) is a ...

was also a professional footballer.

Honours

As a player

Crystal Palace *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

: 1993–94 *

Football League Second Division play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise tw ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Full Members' Cup The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992. Th ...

: 1990–91 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 tier ...

: 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 men's footballers England men's international footballers English people of Nigerian descent Sportspeople 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 Footballers from Ibadan Men's association football midfielders Crystal Palace F.C. non-playing staff English football coaches Footballers from Kent