Deletion of Patrick Nyarko

Comment: he definitely fails . Of the given sources, two of them cannot be considered as valid, since they do not cover the subject in detail, but are merely a commentary about football events, and the other two have a debatable reliability. In addition, guidelines are considered as being both inclusive and exclusive
Stance: delete
Cited policy: Wikipedia:Notability (WP:ATHLETE)

Comment: Many articles containing non-trivial coverage of Nyarko in reputable sources.  While  is often cited as an exclusive reason for deletion, reading the section heading at Wikipedia:Notability (people)#Additional criteria is instructional.  ''quote'' '''Failure to meet these criteria is not conclusive proof that a subject should not be included'''.  Waving around  criteria as if notability established in normal ways (non-trivial coverage in multiple reputable sources) can be ignored is simply bad for the project
Stance: keep
Cited policy: Wikipedia:Notability (WP:ATHLETE||WP:ATHLETE)

Comment: no, football ''is'' a professional sport.  Some countries may not be able to fund it professionally, in which case such leagues are not notable.  The US has one professional league, the Major League Soccer|Major League, and it is only that league in which appearances confer notability.  As I said on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Pat Phelan|Pat Phelan's AfD, you've misread .  It says either "Competitors and coaches who have competed in a fully professional league, or a competition of equivalent standing in a non-league sport such as swimming, golf or tennis", which Nyarko fails, or "Competitors and coaches who have competed at the highest level in amateur sports (who meet the general criteria of secondary sources published about them)" for which Nyarko is inelligible as football is a professional sport
Stance: comment
Cited policy: Wikipedia:Notability (WP:ATHLETE)

Comment: Football is an amateur sport when it's played at the amateur level. You can't define an entire sport as either amateur or professional - almost all sports are competed at both levels. Again, I have the weirdest sense of deja vu ... Does not fail , as he's competed at the highest level in amateur sports and has valid secondary sources published about him. If the references already included - including the Washington Post article - aren't enough, the USA Today piece just added as a reference to the Pat Phelan article could also be added here. If all those references, plus his being a Hermann Trophy finalist and being a top selection in the draft don't add up to notability, well, I just don't get it.—Preceding Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned comment added by
Stance: keep
Cited policy: Wikipedia:Notability (WP:ATHLETE)

Comment: First of all, there are three fully professional leagues in the US.  The first is not "the" Major League -- it's Major League Soccer.  There also exists USL-1 and USL-2.  Secondly, you are forgetting about , which trumps WP:ATHLETE.  Since Nyarko has received significant press coverage, he's notable regardless of what WP:ATHLETE says.  This is just case #34431413 in the long list of misunderstandings of the way American sport works.  Since the "academy system" is only in its infancy in the US, the notability rules laid out by WikiProject Football don't function very well for US players
Stance: comment
Cited policy: Wikipedia:Notability (WP:BIO)

Comment: obviously.  The general notability criterion - non-trivial coverage in multiple media sources - supersedes project guidelines.  Nyarko was the subject of at least three biographical articles external to Virginia Tech and his pro team - http://www.roanoke.com/sports/college/wb/147128 , http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/13/AR2007121301548.html, http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/sports.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-12-07-0190.html.  This was discussed ad nauseam at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Roger Espinoza.   says, "A person is presumed to be notable if he or she has been the subject of published secondary source material which is reliable, intellectually independent, and independent of the subject."  All three of these articles obviously meet those requirements.  The fact that he hasn't played in a professional league changes nothing.  We have a http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:Infobox_NCAA_Athlete&limit=500&from=0 gracious plenty articles on college football and college basketball players and there's no logical reason to invent new standards for college soccer players. By the way, it's not a contested prod - it's an INVALID prod - the article has already survived an AFD and thus a prod is invalid
Stance: keep
Cited policy: Wikipedia:Notability (WP:BIO)