Sulley Muntari

Sulley Muntari
	Muntari in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Sulleyman Ali Muntari
Date of birth	27 August 1984 (age 40)
Place of birth	Konongo, Ghana
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
2000–2001	Liberty Professionals
2001–2002	Udinese
Senior career*
Years	Team
2002–2007	Udinese
2007–2008	Portsmouth
2008–2012	Inter Milan
2011	→ Sunderland (loan)
2012	→ AC Milan (loan)
2012–2015	AC Milan
2015–2016	Al Ittihad
2017	Pescara
2018	Deportivo La Coruña
2019	Albacete
2022	Hearts of Oak
Total
National team
2001	Ghana U20
2002–2014	Ghana
	* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:00, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

Sulley Muntari (born 27 August 1984) is a former Ghanaian football player. He played for Internazionale Milano and the Ghanaian national team. A former left-back,^[1] Muntari later developed into a powerful, experienced, hard-working, and tenacious midfielder; although he is primarily known for his physical strength and combative playing style, he was also able to make notable improvements to his technical skills throughout his career. He also possesses a good left foot, a powerful shot from outside the area, and is a solid passer of the ball. Widely considered as one of the best Ghana's midfielders in his prime.

Club career

For the 2002/03 season, the then 18-year-old Muntari moved from Liberty Professionals from Ghana to Serie A club Udinese Calcio.

In the summer of 2006, he wanted to move to the Premier League, preferably to Manchester United. In the winter of 2007, several English and Italian clubs, such as AC Milan, showed interest in the Ghanaian midfielder. However, Udinese Calcio rejected an offer of over eleven million euros in the winter. In the summer of 2007, Muntari moved to Portsmouth FC for the equivalent of ten million euros. He signed a contract until 2012. In 2008, he won the FA Cup with Portsmouth.

In the summer of 2008, Muntari returned to Italy to join Inter Milan for 14 million euros. He signed a five-year contract. After Muntari was no longer able to progress beyond the role of a substitute at Inter, he was loaned to AFC Sunderland for six months in January 2011. There he met John Mensah and Asamoah Gyan, with whom he also plays in the Ghanaian national team.

On 31 January 2012, Inter Milan loaned Muntari to AC Milan until the end of the season. He was later given a two-year contract until 30 June 2014.

On 30 June 2015, it was announced that Muntari's contract with AC Milan was terminated by mutual consent.

He has been under contract with Ittihad FC since July 27, 2015. His contract there is for two years. However, the contract was terminated in July 2016.

Muntari was looking for a club until January 2017, before joining Italian first division club Delfino Pescara 1936. He only made 9 appearances for the second division club.

After another long period without a club, he signed with Deportivo La Coruña on 22 February 2018. In 2019, he was briefly under contract with Albacete Balompié. In 2022, he returned to his homeland and signed a contract with Accra Hearts of Oak.

International career

Muntari made his debut for the Ghanaian national team on May 17, 2002 in a friendly match against Slovenia. At the 2006 World Cup in Germany he scored in the important 2-0 win against the Czech Republic, but was unable to play in the 2-1 win against the USA due to his second yellow card. Nevertheless, he played a huge part in Ghana reaching the round of 16, which they lost to Brazil.

In the opening match of the 2008 African Cup of Nations against Guinea, Muntari scored the decisive 2-1 goal for Ghana in extra time and took his national team to third place. He was not considered for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations for disciplinary reasons.

During a test match before the 2010 World Cup against the Netherlands (1:4), there was a dispute on the field between Muntari and Hans Sarpei, who urged Muntari to play more as a team. At the 2010 World Cup, Muntari only played for thirteen minutes in the first two group matches against Australia. After he became abusive to the coach, he was briefly banned from the squad before the last group match. After Muntari apologized, however, this decision was reversed and he made a brief appearance in the round of 16 victory over the USA. In the quarter-final against Uruguay, he then made his first start and scored the interim 1:0. Nevertheless, Ghana were unfortunately eliminated in the penalty shootout and thus missed the chance to become the first African team to advance to a World Cup semi-final.

On 13 May 2014, he was called up to the squad of the Ghana national football team for the 2014 World Cup. After an argument with an association official, he was suspended indefinitely by the Ghana FA on 26 June 2014 and removed from the squad.

Career statistics

Club

Club	Season	League			National Cup		Continental		Other		Total
Club	Season	Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Udinese	2002–03	Serie A	12	0	2	0	—		—		14	0
	2003–04	Serie A	23	0	4	0	1^[a]	0	—		28	0
	2004–05	Serie A	33	2	6	0	2^[b]	0	—		41	2
	2005–06	Serie A	29	3	0	0	11^[c]	0	—		40	3
	2006–07	Serie A	28	3	2	1	—		—		30	4
	Total		125	8	14	1	14	0	—		153	9
Portsmouth	2007–08	Premier League	29	4	4	1	—		—		33	5
Internazionale	2008–09	Serie A	27	4	3	0	7^[a]	1	1^[d]	1	38	5
	2009–10	Serie A	27	2	5	0	9^[a]	0	1^[d]	0	42	2
	2010–11	Serie A	8	1	1	0	3^[a]	0	1^[e]	0	13	1
	2011–12	Serie A	4	0	0	0	0	0	—		4	0
	Total		66	7	9	0	19	0	3	1	97	8
Sunderland (loan)	2010–11	Premier League	9	1	0	0	—		—		9	1
Milan (loan)	2011–12	Serie A	13	3	1	0	0	0	—		14	3
Milan	2012–13	Serie A	15	1	1	0	2^[a]	1	—		18	2
	2013–14	Serie A	26	5	0	0	8^[a]	1	—		34	6
	2014–15	Serie A	16	2	1	0	—		—		17	2
	Total		70	11	3	0	10	2	—		83	13
Al-Ittihad	2015–16	Saudi Professional League	18	2	3	0	5	1	3	0	29	3
Pescara	2016–17	Serie A	9	1	0	0	—		—		9	1
Deportivo La Coruña	2017–18	La Liga	8	0	0	0	—		—		8	0
Albacete	2018–19	Segunda División	2	0	0	0	—		—		2	0
Hearts of Oak	2021–22	Ghana Premier League	11	1	3	0	0	0	1^[f]	0	15	1
Career total			347	35	36	2	48	3	7	1	438	41

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 Appearances in UEFA Champions League
↑ Appearances in UEFA Europa League
↑ 8 appearances in UEFA Champions League and 3 appearances in UEFA Europa League
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Appearances in Italian Supercup
↑ Appearances in FIFA Club World Cup
↑ Appearances in President's Cup

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year^[2]
National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Ghana	2002	2	2
	2003	1	0
	2004	5	1
	2005	6	2
	2006	11	3
	2007	8	2
	2008	12	4
	2009	6	2
	2010	6	2
	2011	10	1
	2012	8	1
	2013	5	2
	2014	4	0
Total		84	20

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

List of international goals scored by Sulley Muntari^[3]
Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	20 June 2004	Baba Yara Stadium, Kumasi, Ghana	South Africa	1–0	3–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
2	14 November 2005	King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia	Saudi Arabia	2–1	3–1	Friendly
3	8 October 2005	Estádio da Várzea, Praia, Cape Verde	Cape Verde	2–0	4–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
4	29 May 2006	Walkers Stadium, Leicester, England	Jamaica	3–0	4–1	Friendly
5	4 June 2006	Easter Road, Edinburgh, Scotland	South Korea	2–0	3–1	Friendly
6	17 June 2006	RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne, Germany	Czech Republic	2–0	2–0	2006 FIFA World Cup
7	7 February 2007	Wembley Stadium, London, England	Nigeria	4–0	4–1	Friendly
8	24 March 2007	UPC-Arena, Graz, Austria	Austria	1–1	1–1	Friendly
9	20 January 2008	Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra, Ghana	Guinea	2–1	2–1	2008 Africa Cup of Nations
10	28 January 2008	Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra, Ghana	Morocco	2–0	2–0	2008 Africa Cup of Nations
11	9 February 2008	Baba Yara Stadium, Kumasi, Ghana	Ivory Coast	1–0	4–2	2008 Africa Cup of Nations
12	22 June 2008	Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra, Ghana	Gabon	2–0	2–0	2010 World Cup qualification
13	12 August 2009	Brisbane Road, London, England	Zambia	3–0	4–1	Friendly
14	6 September 2009	Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra, Ghana	Sudan	1–0	2–0	2010 World Cup qualification
15	3 March 2010	Koševo Stadium, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1–1	1–2	Friendly
16	2 July 2010	Soccer City, Johannesburg, South Africa	Uruguay	1–0	1–1	2010 FIFA World Cup
17	27 March 2011	Stade de la Revolution, Brazzaville, Congo	Congo	3–0	3–0	2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualification
18	1 June 2012	Baba Yara Stadium, Kumasi, Ghana	Lesotho	1–0	7–0	2014 World Cup qualification
19	7 June 2013	Al-Merrikh Stadium, Omdurman, Sudan	Sudan	3–1	3–1	2014 World Cup qualification
20	15 October 2013	Baba Yara Stadium, Kumasi, Ghana	Egypt	5–1	6–1	2014 World Cup qualification