Salifu Ibrahim (born 6 June 2000) is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

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 ...

. He previously played for Techiman Eleven Wonders.

Club career

Eleven Wonders

Ibrahim is a graduate UniStar Academy, a

Ghana Division One League The Division One League is the second tier football league in Ghana organized by the Ghana Football Association. It was previously known by the title sponsor as the GN Bank Division One League. It is below the Ghana Premier League. The winner of e ...

team. He started his senior career with Techiman Eleven Wonders in August 2018. On 29 December 2019, he made his official debut, coming on in the 69th minute in Wonders 1–0 loss to

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 ...

. He scored his debut goal in the Ghana Premier League on 9 February 2020 by scoring the winning goal via an assist from Abdul Mugees Zakaria to grant Wonders a 2–1 victory. The 2020–21 league season was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. At the time of its cancellation, he had played in all 15 league matches, starting in 13 of them and scored 2 goals. Ibrahim's prominence in the Ghana Premier League rose during the first round of the 2020–21 season to the extent that he had reached the stage of being referred to as the poster boy and fan's favourite of the club. During the first round, he played 16 matches, scored one goal, provided 4 assists and won five man of the match awards. Prior to the end of the first round and opening of the transfer window, Ibrahim was linked with several clubs. Despite being a reported target of Medeama,

Ashanti Gold The Ashanti Goldfields Corporation is a gold mining company based in Ghana that was founded by Joseph Ellis and Joseph Biney both from Cape Coast. The Ashanti Mine, located at Obuasi, 56 km south of Kumasi, has been producing since 1897. Dur ...

and

Karela United Karela United FC is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Aiyinase, Ellembele District, Western Region. The club competed in the 2019 Ghanaian Normalisation Cup Competition. Karela plays their home matches at the CAM Park. History ...

, Eleven Wonders confirmed the transfer of Ibrahim to

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

based club Hearts of Oak on 27 February 2021 for an undisclosed fee, signing a three-year deal.

Hearts of Oak

On 27 February 2021,

announced that they had signed Ibrahim on a three-year deal. On 7 March 2021, was handed his debut by

Samuel Boadu Samuel Boadu (born 24 February 1986) is a Ghanaian professional football manager and former player who last served as the head coach of Accra Hearts of Oak S.C. in the Ghana Premier League and serves as the assistant coach of the Ghana national ...

during his first match in charge, coming on as a substitute in the 61st minute for

Frederick Ansah Botchway Frederick Ansah Botchway (born 31 October 1996) is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ethiopian club Adama City. Botchway began his senior club career playing for Liberty Professionals aged 19. In 2020, Botchway s ...

in their 4–0 victory over West Africa Football Academy. On 13 May, Ibrahim scored his first competitive goal for Hearts of Oak in a 1–0 defeat of

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 ...

at the Nana Fosu Gyeabour Park in

Bechem Bechem is a town and is the capital of Tano South district of the Ahafo of Ghana, and Bechem is the district capital for the Tano South Constituency.

. His second goal for the club came on 13 June 2021, in the ''Phobia's'' 2–0 victory over Medeama, Samuel Boadu's former club. He was adjudged the man of the match at the end of the match. At the end of May 2021, he was adjudged the

GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general us ...

NASCO Player of the Month for May beating competition from

Sam Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and ...

and Ismail Abdul-Ganiyu. His season with Hearts of Oak ended well, as he played 16 league matches, scored two goals, provided 4 assists to help Hearts of Oak to clinch 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, ...

title, their 21st league title after a 12-year trophy drought. Ibrahim contributed with six appearances in the season's Ghanaian FA Cup, as the tournament ended in a win; in

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

against

, he again came on for the Isaac Mensah late into the second half of a goalless draw, and converted his attempt in the 8–7 penalty shootout triumph. At the end of the season, he was awarded the Ghana Premier League Player of the Season, after scoring 3 goals, providing 8 assists and winning the NASCO man of the match award a record eight times, the highest within the season, beating off competition from

West African Football Academy West African Football Academy (WAFA) Sporting Club is a Ghanaian professional football club based near Sogakope in the Volta Region that was founded by Feyenoord from Rotterdam. They are competing in the Ghana Premier League. The 2016–17 seaso ...

Augustine Boakye Augustine Boakye (born 3 November 2000) is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Austrian Football Bundesliga club Wolfsberger AC. Career Boakye began his football career with WAFA in the Ghana Premier League. In Aug ...

Diawisie Taylor Charles Diawisie Taylor (born 1 January 2000) is a Ghanaian professional footballer who currently plays as a striker for Sudanese club Al-Merrikh on loan from Egyptian Premier League club Future FC. He previously played for Bibiani Gold Stars. ...

Great Olympics Accra Great Olympics is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Accra, Greater Accra. The club is currently competing in the Ghana Premier League. It has won the Ghana Premier League twice, in 1970, 1974 and the Ghana FA Cup thrice, in 197 ...

' captain

Gladson Awako Gladson Awako (born December 31, 1990) is a Ghanaian footballer who plays as a midfielder and captains Accra Hearts of Oaks. Career Early career Awako began his career with Berekum Arsenal and joined in 2006 to All Stars F.C. who played hi ...

and his teammate Benjamin Afutu Kotey. He was also adjudged the

Ghana Football Awards Ghana Football Awards is an annual award scheme organized to recognize the best Ghanaian players playing in and outside of the country and key stakeholders who contribute significantly to the game. Several category of awards are given to the most o ...

Home-based Player of Year.

International career

On 12 February 2021, Ibrahim was amongst the 32 home-based players called up into the

Ghana national football team The Ghana national football team represents Ghana in men's international football, doing it since 1957. The team consists of twenty players including the technical team. The team is nicknamed the Black Stars after the Black Star of Africa in ...

by the ''Black Stars'' head coach C. K. Akonnor for their African Cup of Nations qualifiers against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe (; pt, São Tomé e Príncipe (); English: " Saint Thomas and Prince"), officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe ( pt, República Democrática de São Tomé e Príncipe), is a Portuguese-speaking i ...

Honours

Hearts of Oak *

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 ...

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 ...

* Ghanaian 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 ...

Individual *

Player of the Season:

Home-based Player of Year: 2020–21 *Ghana Premier League Player of the Month:

May 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 coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibrahim, Salifu 2000 births Living people People from Brong-Ahafo Region Ghanaian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Techiman Eleven Wonders FC players Accra Hearts of Oak S.C. players Ghana Premier League players