Frederick Ansah Botchway (born 31 October 1996) is a Ghanaian 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 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 ...

for Ethiopian club Adama City. Botchway began his senior club career playing for

Liberty Professionals Liberty Professionals Football Club is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Dansoman, Accra. History Liberty Professionals, was founded in 1996 by Accra-based businessmen Felix Ansong and Alhaji Sly Tetteh. The club was one of the earl ...

aged 19. In 2020, Botchway signed for

Accra Hearts of Oak Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club, commonly referred to as Hearts of Oak or just Hearts, is a professional sports club based in Accra (Greater Accra), Ghana. Founded in 1911, the club is the oldest surviving football club in Ghana and its trad ...

on a free transfer, where he won five tophies, including a

Ghana Premier League The is the top professional association football division of the football league system in Ghana. Officially formed in 1956 to replace a previous league incarnation, the Gold Coast Club Competition (which began in 1933 and ended in 1953–54), t ...

title, two Ghana FA Cup and a

President's Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

. In 2022, he moved to Samartex but a month later joined Ethiopian club Adama City.

Club career

Liberty Professionals

Botchway started his senior career with

Dansoman Dansoman is a suburban town in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, located near Accra and Takoradi district of the Accra Metropolitan Area. The town is known for being one of the largest estates in West Africa. History The town was founded by th ...

side

. Ahead of the 2015–16 season, he was promoted to the senior team. He made his professional debut on 1 June 2016 when he was brought on in the 80th minute during a 1–0 loss to Medeama. On 18 September 2016, he made his first start for the club and played the full 90 minutes in a 3–1 win over

Bechem United Bechem United Football Club (officially: ''Bechem United Football Club'' or the "Hunters") is a Ghanaian professional football club, based in Bechem in the Ahafo Region They are competing in the Ghanaian Premier League and currently participating ...

. The following season, in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, he became an important member of the team, playing in 21 league matches and scoring one goal. The goal was his first league goal, which he scored after coming on as a substitute in a 4–2 victory over

Berekum Chelsea Berekum United Football Club is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Berekum, Bono Region, previously known as Bechem Chelsea Football Club. They compete in the Ghanaian top-flight league called the First Capital Premier League. Hist ...

on 8 October 2017. In the 2018 season, Botchway played 7 of the 15 league matches as the league was cancelled due to corruption scandal documentary Anas Number 12 exposé in relation to 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 ...

. He played a major role in Liberty's 2019 GFA Special Competition campaign of which he played 13 of 14 matches played and scored a goal to help Liberty finish third, two points shy of a semi-finals. His performance during that campaign made him a transfer target for top teams such as

Asante Kotoko Asante Kotoko Sporting Club, simply known as Asante Kotoko, is a professional football club founded on 31 August 1935 and based in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Nicknamed the ''Porcupine Warriors'', they compete in the Ghana Premier Lea ...

Hearts of Oak Hearts most commonly refers to: * Hearts (card game), a trick-taking game * Hearts (suit), one of the standard four suits of cards * Heart, an organ Hearts may also refer to: Music * The Hearts, an American girl group closely related to the Jay ...

and Legon Cities after his contract with Liberty expired. At the end of his 4–year stay with the club he played 43 league matches and scored 2 goals.

Hearts of Oak

Botchway moved to Hearts of Oak on a free transfer in January 2020, two games after the start of the

2019–20 Ghana Premier League The 2019–20 Ghana Premier League was the 64th season of top professional association football league in Ghana. The season started on 28 December 2019. 18 teams compete in the league with each club playing each other twice, home and away, with ...

season. On 12 January 2020, he started his first match in a 2–1 victory over

Cape Coast Ebusua Dwarfs Cape Coast Mysterious Ebusua Dwarfs is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Cape Coast. The club competes in the Ghana Premier League, the Premier division on the Ghanaian football pyramid, and hold home games at Cape Coast Sports Sta ...

. He played 70 minutes of the match before being substituted for Dominic Eshun. He played 10 matches before the league was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana The COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first two cases in Ghana were confirmed on 12 March 2020, when two infected ...

. In his second season with Hearts, Botchway played a major role in Hearts winning the

domestic double The Double, in association football, is the achievement of winning a country's top tier division and its primary cup competition in the same season. The lists in this article examine this definition of a double, while derivative sections examin ...

. On 2 January 2021, he scored his debut goal for Hearts of Oak, scoring the fourth goal, a spot kick in their 6–1 rout of

. In early April, he sustained an injury in a match against Aduana Stars keeping him out until June 2021, when he made a substitute appearance in the 3–0 victory in Ghana FA Cup match against his former club

. In the following match, he was named on the bench in their 1–1 draw against fierce rivals Accra Great Olympics. On his full return from injury, he started and scored a goal in their 2–1 victory over Legon Cities on June 24. At the end of the season, he played 22 league matches and scored 2 goals as Hearts won the

2020–21 Ghana Premier League The 2020–21 Ghana Premier League is the 65th season of top professional association football league in Ghana. The season started on 14 November 2020. 18 teams are competing in the league with each club playing each other twice, home and away, ...

after a 12-year trophy drought. During the

2021 Ghanaian FA Cup The 2021 Ghanaian FA Cup (also called the 2021 MTN FA Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the 41st edition of the Ghanaian FA Cup, the knockout football competition of Ghana. History Due to the shortcomings within the Ghana Football Association due ...

final, he played 111 minutes of full time plus extra time before he was substituted for

Emmanuel Nettey Emmanuel Nettey (born 28 September 1991) is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Shabab Sahel. Career Early career Nettey was born in Nungua, Accra. He started his career at Ghanaian side Sharks F.C. He then mov ...

as Hearts won the match via a penalty shootout. In the 2021–22 season, Botchway maintained his role as a key member of the team, playing 23 league matches. He also played the entire 90-minute game as Hearts defeated Bechem United 2–1 in the 2021–22 Ghanaian FA Cup final. At the end of his two year stint, he played over 60 matches in all competitions, scored two goals and won five trophies.

Adama City

Botchway was released by Hearts in August 2022 after being deemed surplus to requirements, but he was eventually called back. He trained with the club until he was sold to newly promoted side

Samartex Football Club Samartex 1996, more commonly known as Samartex, is a Ghanaian professional football team based at Samartex Park in Tarkwa that plays in the 2A Zone of the Ghana Division One League. Zone 2A has seven competing teams from the part o ...

. He signed a two-year contract with the Samreboi-based club. A month after, Botchway was transferred to Ethiopian club Adama City, signing a one-year contract after passing his medical examination.

International career

Botchway was called up to the

Ghana A' national football team The Ghana A' national football team is the local national football team of Ghana and is open only to indigenous domestic league players. The team represents Ghana at the WAFU Nations Cup and the African Nations Championship and is controlled b ...

, the ''Local Black Stars'' ahead of their 2020 CHAN qualifiers and

2019 WAFU Cup of Nations The 2019 WAFU Cup of Nations was the sixth edition of the WAFU Nations Cup, an association football tournament that is affiliated with the West African Football Union (WAFU). It took place from 28 September to 13 October 2019 in Thiès, Senegal. T ...

, however he did not make the final squad.

Personal life

Botchway considers former Ghanaian international captain

Stephen Appiah Stephen Leroy Appiah ( ; born 24 December 1980) is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Appiah was a member of the Ghana national team, which he has represented at the youth, Olympic, and senior levels. He capta ...

who also featured for Accra Hearts of Oak as his idol and inspiration. He grew up in a poor family and due to struggles at the early stages of his football career including have to walk long distances for training and matches he considered quitting football.

Honours

Hearts of Oak *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

* Ghana FA Cup:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, 2021–22 *

Ghana Super Cup The Ghana Super Cup is a football competition involving a match played between the champion of the Ghana Premier League and the winner of the Ghanaian FA Cup in Ghana. The first Ghana Super Cup competition took place in the 1996–1997 season, af ...

: 2021 *

: 2022

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Botchway, Frederick Ansah Living people 1996 births Ghanaian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Liberty Professionals F.C. players Accra Hearts of Oak S.C. players Ghana Premier League players Charity Stars F.C. players People from Western Region (Ghana) Adama City F.C. players Ghanaian expatriate men's footballers Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Ethiopia Expatriate men's footballers in Ethiopia