Sulley Muntari

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Sulley Muntari
Personal information
Full name	Sulley Ali Muntari
Date of birth	August 27, 1984 (1984-08-27) (age 23)
Place of birth	Konongo, Ghana
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10+1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Portsmouth
Number	11
Youth clubs
2001-2002	Liberty Professionals
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2002–2007 2007–	Udinese Portsmouth	125 0(8) 029 0(4)
National team2
2002–	Ghana	038 (11)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14:52, 15 May 2008 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 2 June 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Sulley Ali Muntari (born August 27, 1984 in Konongo, Ghana) is a Ghanaian footballer who plays for Portsmouth F.C. in England. He is a central midfielder, but can also play as left midfielder. He has 38 caps and 11 goals for Ghana, as of March 2008.

Contents 1 Professional career 1.1 Early career 1.2 Udinese 1.3 Portsmouth 2 Senior international 3 References 4 Honours 5 External links

[edit] Professional career

[edit] Early career

Muntari's abilities first came to light in youth tournaments, while he was playing for Liberty Professionals in Accra. He became a regular member of Ghana's U-20 team at the age of 16 as they finished runners-up at the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina , losing out to the hosts in the final.^[1]

[edit] Udinese

He joined Udinese in 2001^{[2] [3]} where his first season was spent in the reserves, but he made his debut on 6 November 2002, against AC Milan.

In his second full season, he made 23 appearances, and increased his standing to 33 appearances the following season^[4], although indiscipline saw him sent off three times in 16 matches in the 2006/07 season ^[5].

[edit] Portsmouth

Muntari had already indicated a desire to move to the Premier League^[6], when in early 2007 transfer bids were received from Portsmouth^[7], AC Milan ^[8], Juventus ^[9], AS Roma^[10] and Inter Milan^[11].

He eventually opted for Portsmouth^[12] and transferred on 30 May 2007, for a new club record fee, believed to be around £7.1m, signing a five-year contract.^[13][14] He has been a regular member of the first XI throughout the 2007/08 season, scoring the winner from the spot in a 1-0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford in the sixth round of the FA Cup. Another performance of note was away at Aston Villa where he scored two spectacular long-range goals. He was in the first XI that won the 2008 FA Cup Final.

[edit] Senior international

Muntari won his first cap for Ghana against Slovenia on 17 May 2002, and became a regular fixture in the team as The Black Stars opened their 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign. He was selected for the Olympic side at Athens 2004, but was sent home for disciplinary reasons^[15]. This started a dispute between Muntari and his federation, and he said that he would refuse to play for his country again, beating the record for the youngest international retirement.^[16] He retracted, making a public apology to the federation^[17], and was selected for the 2006 World Cup squad. He played in the first two matches, a 2-0 defeat by Italy and a 2-0 win over the Czech Republic, in which he scored, but having received a yellow cards in each game, he was suspended for the game against the United States, but returned for the second round match against Brazil, in which Ghana was eliminated.

He remained a regular member of the team, and appeared in the 2008 African Cup of Nations side, scoring the winner in the first group match against Guinea and the second goal in the last group match against Morocco. He scored his 3rd goal of the tournament when he scored a freekick against Ivory Coast in the 3rd place play off.

He was voted as an All-Star Player during the 2008 African Cup of Nations Tournament in Ghana. The Team of the Tournament was decided by the Technical Study Group (TSG) after careful observations of all the tournament's matches^[18].

[edit] References

[edit] Honours

Club

Portsmouth F.C.

• English FA Cup Winner: 2008

National team

• FIFA World Youth Championship Runner-up: 2001
• African Cup of Nations 3rd Place: 2008

[edit] External links

• Sulley Muntari career stats at Soccerbase
• Muntari Stats Page - RAI Sport
• Muntari Stats Page - Gazzetta dello Sport
• Fifa 2006 World Cup Profile
• Ghana Football Association - official website
• Ghanaweb Football Forum - Official Fan Forum
• Muntari linked with a move to AC Milan
• Muntari enjoying life at Portsmouth

v • d • e Ghana squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Adjei • 2 Sarpei • 3 Gyan • 4 Kuffour • 5 Mensah • 6 Pappoe • 7 Shilla • 8 Essien • 9 Boateng • 10 Appiah • 11 Muntari • 12 Tachie‑Mensah • 13 Mohamed • 14 Amoah • 15 Paintsil • 16 Owu • 17 Quaye • 18 E. Addo • 19 Pimpong • 20 O. Addo • 21 Issah • 22 Kingson • 23 Dramani • Coach: Dujković

v • d • e Portsmouth F.C. – current squad 1 James • 2 Primus • 3 Aubey • 4 Lauren • 5 Johnson • 6 Diarra • 7 Hreiðarsson • 8 Bouba Diop • 9 Baroš • 10 Nugent • 11 Muntari • 13 Begovic • 14 Defoe • 15 Distin • 16 Pamarot • 17 Utaka • 18 Mvuemba • 19 Kranjčar • 20 Cranie • 21 Ashdown • 22 Hughes • 23 Campbell • 24 Duffy • 27 Kanu • 28 Davis • 30 Pedro Mendes • 34 Songo'o • 35 Wilson • Manager: Redknapp