Roy Essandoh

Roy Essandoh
Personnel
Surname	Roy Kabina Essandoh
birthday	17th February 1976
place of birth	Belfast ,  Northern Ireland
size	183 cm
position	striker
Juniors
Years	station
1989-1994	Glentoran FC
1994-1995	Cumbernauld United
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1995-1997	Motherwell FC	5 0(0)
1998	East Fife FC	5 0(0)
1998	VSE St. Pölten	3 0(0)
1998-1999	JJK Jyväskylä	16 0(5)
1999-2000	Vaasan PS	50 0(7)
2000-2001	Rushden & Diamonds	2 0(0)
2001	Wycombe Wanderers	13 0(0)
2001	Cambridge United	1 0(0)
2001-2002	Barnet FC	6 0(1)
2002	Cambridge City	16 0(3)
2002	Bishop's Stortford FC	5 0(3)
2002	Billericay Town	15 0(9)
2002-2003	Grays Athletic	19 0(4)
2003-2004	Bishop's Stortford FC	19 0(5)
2004-2005	Ebbsfleet United	46 (15)
2005-2006	Kettering Town	6 0(0)
2006-2008	Bishop's Stortford FC	149 (62)
2010–	St. Neots Town FC	0 0(0)
1 Only league games are given. 2 As of August 30, 2008

Roy Kabina Essandoh (born February 17, 1976 in Belfast , Northern Ireland ) is a Northern Irish football player . He is also a Ghanaian citizen .

Club career

The early years

The son of a Ghanaian and a Northern Irishwoman spent most of his childhood in Ghana . Since his father worked as a gynecologist in Ghana, he had a largely sheltered childhood. When the marriage fell apart, he followed his mother back to Belfast.

There he was discovered in 1989 by a talent scout from FC Glentoran at a school tournament at his school.

In 1995 he started his professional career under coach Alex McLeish at the Scottish first division club FC Motherwell . When he failed to make the breakthrough after two years at Motherwell, he signed a three-month trial contract with Scottish third division club FC East Fife . After five games without a goal, he had the opportunity to leave the island and move to the mainland.

Stations in Austria and Finland

In 1998 he first moved to the Austrian second division at VSE St. Pölten . After three games he seriously injured his knee, whereupon his contract with St. Pölten was terminated. Subsequently, he was brought to Finland by the Northern Irish football legend Jimmy Nicholl . First to the little JJK Jyväskylä , after a quite successful season to the much larger Vaasan PS in Finland . In Vaasa he experienced by far his most successful time. He finished second in the league twice and won the Finnish Cup in 1999. When his contract expired in 2000, he decided to try his luck in England.

Back on the island

After a marathon of trial training at Luton Town , Swindon Town or Wigan Athletic , he was able to get a trial contract with Rushden & Diamonds . After two games without a goal, this was not renewed.

Career high point with the Wycombe Wanderers

Without a club again, his player agent spoke to him about a teletext report (not from the Internet, as is often claimed) about the Wycombe Wanderers' unusual search for a striker. The Wanderers were in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup , but had six injured strikers and hardly any more offensive forces to play the important game. Out of this need, the then Wycombe coach Lawrie Sanchez asked his spokesman to post an advertisement on the club's official website to look for a striker. This unusual action was registered by the BBC , which featured the incident under the sports headlines on its teletext page. There, in turn, the Essandoh player agent read the message and made him aware of it. Essandoh contacted Sanchez and received another two-week trial contract. The rest is history. Ten days later, Essandoh was substituted on in the extension of the quarter-final match against first division Leicester City when the score was 1: 1 and scored the winning goal with a header. As a result, the previously still without contract Essandoh was celebrated by forty thousand fans on arrival in Wycombe and received a contract until the end of the season.

Coach Sanchez later stated that Essandoh was the only player who came forward on the complaint.

Further career

After the contract of Essandoh was not renewed at the end of the season by Wycombe, he became a popular player for short-term engagements due to his reputation. In the following seven years Essandoh changed clubs ten times and tingled between the English fourth to sixth league. Only with his involvement with Ebbsfleet United (formerly Gravesend & Northfleet) did he sit up and take notice again when he was called up for the international match of Northern Ireland against Austria after strong performances from coach Lawrie Sanchez.

On August 29, 2010, he surprisingly signed a contract with St. Neots Town FC .

National team

After his FA Cup goal, Essandoh was invited by trainer Sammy McIlroy to a training camp for the Northern Irish national team. In the course of this training camp, he also played an international match against a regional team, which is not recognized as official.

When coach Lawrie Sanchez, meanwhile coach of the Northern Irish national football team, again had many injuries-related failures in the striker position in October 2004, he remembered Essandoh and called him “on call” for the World Cup qualifier against Austria . Sanchez justified his decision to appoint a fifth division player with the fact that Essandoh had scored 11 goals in 15 games for his club Ebbesfield Town in the last four months. In addition, Essandoh is always good for a goal.

In 2001 Essandoh was also in discussion with the Ghanaian national team . But there was no appeal.

To date (August 2008) Essandoh has not made an official international match for Northern Ireland or Ghana .

Private life

Essandoh lives with his wife in Cambridge and works there alongside his football career as a private fitness trainer. He is revered as an all-time hero by Wycombe Wanderers fans.

successes

• 1 × Finnish Cup winner: 1999
• 1 × FA Cup - semi-finalist: 2001
• 2 × call-up to the Northern Irish national football team

Web links

• Roy Essandoh in the soccerbase.com database
• Player profile at NonLeagueDaily.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wycombe shock Leicester (English)
2. ↑ Essandoh accepts deal
3. ↑ Ford delighted for Essandoh (English)
4. ↑ Roy Essandoh joins the Saints (English)  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.