John Paintsil

**John Paintsil** (born 15 June 1981) is a Ghanaian football player. He played for Fulham and Ghana national team. He was characterized by solid defensive performances, contributing significantly to both teams. Paintsil's agility, tactical awareness, and relentless work rate made him a formidable opponent on the pitch. He is regarded as one of the best Ghanaian defenders of his time.

## Club career
Paintsil was born in the city of Berekum. He started his football career in the local club Arsenal Berekum. In 2000, he made his debut in the second league and, as a first-team player, was promoted to the Ghanaian top league at the end of the year. He played there for another year, and later in 2000, he moved to Liberty Professionals FC, with which he finished 3rd in the league.

In the summer of 2002, Paintsil was close to moving to Widzew Łódź, but ultimately he did not reach an agreement with the Łódź team. His new club was the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv. In the 2002/2003 season, he played 17 games and helped Maccabi win the Israeli championship. In 2004, he became the national vice-champion, and in the 2004/2005 season he won the Israel Cup. In early 2005, John joined Maccabi's local rivals, Hapoel Tel Aviv. In 2006, he became vice-champion of the country and won his second Israeli cup in his career.

In July 2006, West Ham United manager Alan Pardew brought Paintsil into his team. The sum of the transfer was approximately EUR 1.5 million. Thanks to his performances in the national team, the player received a work permit in Great Britain, as well as a shirt with the number 14. He was to compete for a place in the team with Tyrone Mears and the American Jonathan Spector. He made his Premiership debut on August 19 in a 3-1 win over Charlton. He played only 5 games throughout the season, mainly recovering from an injury. However, in the next season he played only 14 games and left the team after the season.

In July 2008, Paintsil signed with another London club, Fulham. He joined him for £ 6.3 million in a package with Bobby Zamora. He made his debut in the new team on August 16 in a 2-1 league defeat against Hull City.

In July 2011, he signed a contract with Leicester City.

On August 13, 2012, he signed a one-year contract with Israeli Hapoel Tel Aviv. He then played for South African teams Santos FC and Maritzburg United FC. He ended his career in 2016.

## International career
In 2001, Paintsil played at the U-20 World Championships in Argentina and finished runner-up. In 2002, he was named in the squad for the 2002 African Cup of Nations. On January 24, he made his debut for the Ghana first team in a match against South Africa.

In 2006, Paintsil was called up for the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations , but the Ghanaians were eliminated after the group stage. In the summer, Ratomir Dujković took him to the World Championships in Germany . There he played in all four matches of his team: group games against Italy (0:2), against the Czech Republic (2:0) and against the USA (2:1), as well as in the round of 16 against Brazil (0:3). In 2008, he won the bronze medal in the 2008 African Cup of Nations.

## Club career statistics 
|-
|2002–03||rowspan="3"|Maccabi Tel Aviv||rowspan="3"|Premier League||17||0
|-
|2003–04||22||0
|-
|2004–05||7||0
|-
|2004–05||rowspan="2"|Hapoel Tel Aviv||rowspan="2"|Premier League||15||1
|-
|2005–06||27||2

|-
|2006–07||rowspan="2"|West Ham United||rowspan="2"|Premier League||5||0
|-
|2007–08||14||0
|-
|2008–09||rowspan="2"|Fulham||rowspan="2"|Premier League||36||0
|-
|2009–10||39||0
88||3
94||0
182||3
|}

## International career statistics 
|-
|2001||1||0
|-
|2002||7||0
|-
|2003||1||0
|-
|2004||0||0
|-
|2005||5||0
|-
|2006||12||0
|-
|2007||7||0
|-
|2008||15||0
|-
|2009||10||0
|-
|2010||9||0
|-
|2011||9||0
|-
|2012||7||0
|-
|2013||6||0
|-
!Total||89||0
|}

## Honours
### Player
**Maccabi Tel Aviv**
*Israeli Premier League: 2002–03

**Hapoel Tel Aviv**
*Israel State Cup: 2006

**Fulham**
*UEFA Europa League runner up: 2009–10

**Ghana U20**
*FIFA World Youth Championship runner-up: 2001

**Ghana**
*Africa Cup of Nations Bronze Medal: 2008

**Individual**
* CAF Team of the Year: 2009

## References