Ibrahim Anyars Tanko (born 25 July 1977) is a Ghanaian retired

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 played mostly as a second striker or an

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. ...

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

who last served as the head coach of the local Black Stars -

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 by t ...

. He played most of his 15-year professional career – blighted by injuries – in Germany, with

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

and

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

. At the international level, he represented the

Ghana national football team The Ghana national football team represents Ghana in men's international Association football, football. The team is named the Black Stars after the Black Star of Africa in the flag of Ghana. It is governed by the Ghana Football Association, t ...

Club career

Borussia Dortmund

Born in

Kumasi Kumasi is a city and the capital of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the Ashanti Region of Ghana. It is the second largest city in the country, with a population of 443,981 as of the 2021 census. Kumasi is located in a rain forest region ...

, Tanko signed with German side

from King Faisal Babes F.C. at age 17, making him the third youngest player to appear professionally for them behind

Nuri Şahin Nuri Şahin (born 5 September 1988) is a German and Turkish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He was most recently head coach of Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund. He began his playing career at Dortmun ...

and

Lars Ricken Lars Ricken (born 10 July 1976) is a German retired footballer and the current managing director of Borussia Dortmund. From 2008 to 2024, he was the youth coordinator at Dortmund. Ricken represented Borussia Dortmund throughout his entire prof ...

. He made his

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

debut on 24 September 1994 in a 5–0 home win against

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

, and finished his first season with 14 games and one goal. Tanko participated in three matches, all as a late substitute, in Borussia's

1996–97 UEFA Champions League The 1996–97 UEFA Champions League was the 42nd season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the fifth since its rebranding as the UEFA Champions League, and the last that involved only clubs that were champions of their domestic ...

victorious run. Injuries and loss of form led to an eventual demotion to the

Borussia Dortmund II Borussia Dortmund II are the reserve team of Borussia Dortmund, currently playing in the 3. Liga, at Stadion Rote Erde. Until 2005, the team played as Borussia Dortmund Amateure. The team won the Regionalliga West in 2009 and became the second ...

where he played 24 league matches from 1998 to 2000. He made another 13 league appearances before leaving the club in 2001. He was also suspended and eventually released after testing positive for

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

. During his seven-year period with the club, he made 71 appearances in all competitions for the first team and scored three goals.

SC Freiburg

In January 2001, Tanko joined

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions ...

, scoring in his fourth game to help to a 3–1 success at

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German professional association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. They currently play ...

, but also missed a great part of the following campaign due to a severe

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

injury, as the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

team dropped down to the 2. Bundesliga. At Freiburg, Tanko's output improved slightly, and he played a career-high 27 matches (with two goals) in 2005–06 2. Bundesliga. However, he only appeared once the following season, and retired at 30.

International career

Tanko earned nine

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

, the last coming on 10 October 2004 – after an absence of eight years – in a

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

qualifier against the

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

Coaching career

On 1 July 2007, Tanko was named assistant coach for Freiburg's reserves, leaving after 18 months together with Karsten Neitzel to

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

Urawa Red Diamonds The or simply Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ, ''Urawa Rezzu''), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, are a professional association football, football club in the city of Saitama (city), Saitama, part of t ...

, and re-uniting with former Freiburg boss

Volker Finke Volker Finke (born 24 March 1948) is a German former football manager and a former player. He was the coach of SC Freiburg for 16 years. Coaching career Early career Finke was a player–coach for TSV Stelingen from 1 July 1974 to 12 February ...

in the same capacity. In the 2011 summer, he began working under

Ståle Solbakken Ståle Solbakken (born 27 February 1968) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of the Norway national team. During his playing career, Solbakken was named 1995 Norwegian midfielder of the year, an ...

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., better known as simply 1. FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English language, English, is a German professional association football, football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 ...

. On 4 June 2013, Tanko resumed his partnership with Finke as the former joined the latter's coaching staff in the Cameroon national side. In January 2012 he was appointed as the Ghana national team's head

, prior to that year's

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 ...

. In May 2017, Tanko was appointed as the first assistant coach for the Ghana national team to

James Kwesi Appiah James Kwesi Appiah (born 30 June 1960), also known as Akwasi Appiah, is a Ghanaian football coach and former player who played as a left back who is the head coach of Sudan national football team. Early life and education Appiah was born on 30 ...

. After serving in that role two years, he was promoted to serve as the head coach of the Ghana national U-23, the Black Meteors in November 2018 after Yussif Abubakar died. He led the team to the

Africa U-23 Cup of Nations The U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, or simply U-23 AFCON or U-23 CAN, is the quadrennial African football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football ( ...

tournament, Egypt 2019, for the first time in 12 years. The team missed out on qualifying for the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

after losing on penalty shout out to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. In January 2020, Tanko was appointed as the head coach of the

, the local Black Stars. After 5 months in charge of the team, he was replaced by

Annor Walker Daniel Annor Walker is a Ghanaian football coach who currently coaches the Accra Great Olympics F.C., Accra Great Olympics and the Ghana A' national football team (Local Black Stars). He previously coached Ghanaian teams; F.C. Nania, Nania FC, Kpa ...

. On Tuesday, 28 June 2022, Tanko was appointed the Head coach of the Black Meteors by the Executive Council of the Ghana Football Association.

Personal life

Tanko is married with three children. He is a devout

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

and speaks French, English and German.

Honours

Borussia Dortmund *

: 1994–95, 1995–96 *UEFA Champions League: 1996–97

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanko, Ibrahim 1977 births Living people Footballers from Kumasi Ghanaian men's footballers Men's association football forwards King Faisal F.C. players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Borussia Dortmund players Borussia Dortmund II players SC Freiburg players Ghana men's international footballers 1996 African Cup of Nations players Ghanaian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Doping cases in association football Ghanaian Muslims UEFA Champions League–winning players