Mathew Amoah (born 24 October 1980) is a Ghanaian former 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 played as a striker. From 2002 to 2011 he played for the Ghana national team at international level, scoring 12 goals in 45 matches.

Club career

Vitesse and Fortuna

Born in

Tema Tema is a city on the Bight of Benin and Atlantic coast of Ghana. It is located east of the capital city; Accra, in the region of Greater Accra, and is the capital of the Tema Metropolitan District. As of 2013, Tema is the eleventh most p ...

, Amoah moved to the Netherlands at the age of 16 in 1996, where he linked with

Vitesse Arnhem SBV Vitesse Arnhem (''Stichting Betaald Voetbal Vitesse Arnhem, Eng: Professional Football Foundation Vitesse Arnhem''), widely known as Vitesse () or internationally known as Vitesse Arnhem, is a Dutch professional association football, footba ...

, spending eight seasons at the club. His early departure from his homeland has led to an almost anonymous profile there because he never played any top-level club football in Ghana, although in Amoah's home town of Tema his achievements in Europe have not gone unnoticed. With three brothers, Amoah learned his craft on the streets of the Ghanaian town and at the age of 15, he was spotted by scouts from the Dutch club while playing in an international youth tournament for his club Great Ambassadors. After Amoah moved to Vitesse, he did not play regularly. So in order to get regular playing action, Amoah needed a loan spell at

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; ) is a professional football club from the municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was establi ...

to find his feet in Dutch football before going back at

Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...

where coach

Ronald Koeman Ronald Koeman (; born 21 March 1963) is a Dutch professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the manager of the Netherlands national football team, Netherlands national team. Koeman scor ...

gave him a chance. And the move paid off as the club's supporters named him their best player after the 2002–03 season, in which he scored 15 goals for the club and also competed in European club competition. Amoah trained at Vitesse where he developed into a good striker. It was his performances at Vitesse which gained him a call up to his homeland

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 ...

's national team. At Vitesse, he scored 62 goals in 174 appearances for the club.

Borussia Dortmund

Amoah signed 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 ...

in December 2005, during the winter transfer window, rejoining coach

Bert van Marwijk Lambertus van Marwijk (; born 19 May 1952) is a Dutch Association football, football manager who is a member of the supervisory board for MVV Maastricht. As a player, he played for the Go Ahead Eagles, AZ Alkmaar, AZ, MVV Maastricht, MVV and For ...

, who managed him during the 1999–2000 season at another Dutch side,

. Amoah signed a two-year contract, but could only manage seventeen first-team appearances (going scoreless in the process) in one-and-a-half seasons. "There was a number of options but Amoah was the one the manager wanted", Hans-Joachim Watzke, Dortmund's finance director, told the ''Westfälische Rundschau'' at the time.

NAC Breda

The 26-year-old Amoah signed a three-year deal with the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eredivisi ...

on 3 July 2007, after a medical. The former Vitesse forward returned to the Netherlands after a lack of first-team opportunities at Dortmund. "We have been working on this deal for months", NAC technical director

Earnie Stewart Earnest Lee Stewart Jr. (born March 28, 1969) is an American former Association football, soccer player who played as a Forward (association football)#Forward, forward or midfielder. His career spanned 17 years from 1988 until his retirement in ...

said. "First it looked like it was impossible for the player to sign, but this week negotiations went quicker."Amoah was instrumental in the attack of NAC Breda since his arrival in July 2007. He scored more than eight goals in every season at the club. He scored 11 goals in his first season, 12 in his second season and then nine in his third season. He was the top scorer of NAC Breda and was loved by the supporters for his spectacular goals which helped the club a lot. At the end of his five-year stay with the club played 105 league matches and scored 43 goals.

Mersin İdmanyurdu

Amoah signed a two-year contract with

Mersin İdmanyurdu SK Mersin İdman Yurdu was a Turkish sports club from Mersin, Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean Region. The team played in the Turkish first division for 15 seasons, and after the 1983–84 season the football team played in the Turkish second and ...

, the newly promoted Turkish club. He only played five matches for the team and left Turkey after one year.

SC Heerenveen

In June 2012, Amoah signed with

side

SC Heerenveen Sportclub Heerenveen (; West Frisian language, West Frisian: Sportklub It Hearrenfean) is a Dutch professional association football, football club from Heerenveen. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top level of football in the Netherla ...

. However, after one season in which he played no single match for the club, he was released in June 2013.

International career

Ghana first selected Amoah ahead of the 2002 CAF

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 ...

and it was in the tournament in Mali where he made his debut. But after the Black Stars were eliminated in the quarter- finals, Amoah only ever received one more call-up before the appointment of coach Ratomir Dujkovic in December 2004. The Serb brought Amoah back for his first game in charge, and Amoah has been in the squad ever since. An international since 2002 he made his debut on 21 January 2002, Segou in a Ghana, Morocco encounter at the

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, Amoah was an instrumental figure in

's first qualification for the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, scoring three goals in three consecutive and important qualifying matches. Matthew Amoah finished as Ghana's leading scorer in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, his five strikes proving pivotal in the Black Stars' march to a second successive tournament. His tally added to the three goals he scored in the 2006 qualifiers that also made a major contribution to Ghana's march to their first-ever FIFA World Cup finals appearance. He also played in their World cup debut even though he did not score in any of the matches he played, his ability, runs and passes helped the team to the group of 16. In 2010, he helped his nation qualify for another world cup. He played in two matches, which he was brought in as a substitute. He is a member of the Ghanaian Golden Era of footballers including

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 ...

right back John Paintsil and Chelsea versatile midfielder

Michael Essien Michael Kojo Essien (born 3 December 1982) is a Ghanaian Association football, football coach and former player who is currently an assistant coach at Danish Superliga club FC Nordsjælland, Nordsjælland. During his prime he was regarded as on ...

and former captain Stephen Appiah who formerly played for Italian Club

Cesena Cesena (; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy; and - with Forlì - is the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. Served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine M ...

, Fenerbahçe SK and

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

. Amoah has scored 13 times in 40 appearances for Ghana.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Ghana's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Amoah goal.''

Honours

Ghana *

Silver Medal:

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

Round of 16:

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

quarter-final:

References

External links

Matthew Amoah
at ''

Voetbal International ''Voetbal International'' (VI) is a Dutch football magazine. It is the oldest Dutch football magazine that is still running. History and profile ''Voetbal International'' was established in 1965. VI was one of the founding members of ESM. It l ...

'' – * {{DEFAULTSORT:Amoah, Mathew 1980 births Living people Footballers from Tema Ghanaian men's footballers Men's association football forwards SBV Vitesse players Fortuna Sittard players Borussia Dortmund players NAC Breda players SC Heerenveen players Heracles Almelo players Mersin Talim Yurdu footballers Eredivisie players Bundesliga players Süper Lig players Ghana men's international footballers 2002 African Cup of Nations players 2006 FIFA World Cup players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players 2010 Africa Cup of Nations players 2010 FIFA World Cup players Ghanaian expatriate men's footballers Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey 21st-century Ghanaian sportsmen