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ISL Transfer Watch: Chennaiyin FC sign Ghanian forward Kwame Karikari

The 30-year-old will be joining the Marina Machans following an impressive outing in the Thai League for Nakhonratchasima Mazda.

Chennaiyin FC

Bengaluru, July 2: Two-time Indian Super League (ISL) champions Chennaiyin FC (CFC) have bolstered their attack by signing Ghanian forward Kwame Karikari ahead of the upcoming season.

The 30-year-old will be joining the Marina Machans following an impressive outing in the Thai League for Nakhonratchasima Mazda.

He scored 13 goals in 29 league matches for the Thai club last season.

Karikari was also the joint second highest goal scorer for Mazda in the Thai FA cup with four strikes from six games and comes close on the heels of another foreign signing of the season -- Senegalese defender Fallou Diagne.

ISL Transfer Watch: Chennaiyin FC makes first foreign signing; ropes in Senegalese defender Fallou DiagneISL Transfer Watch: Chennaiyin FC makes first foreign signing; ropes in Senegalese defender Fallou Diagne

Karikari brings in valuable experience to the CFC attack, having played 261 games in his 11-year long professional career with 84 goals and 13 assists to his name.

The striker has plied his trade for 12 clubs in eight top-tier leagues across the world.

He also has two Europa League goals to his name, which came against CSKA Moscow and PSV Eindhoven in 2012.

Karikari has spent most of his time in the Swedish league, featuring for AIK Solna, with whom he made his professional debut at 19 in 2011. He played 58 matches, including seven Europa League games, for them and scored 10 goals across competitions in five seasons.

Halmstads and Degerfors were the other Swedish clubs Karikari turned out for.

"I am very happy to join Chennaiyin FC. I cannot wait to get started with the new team and I am really looking forward to this new and exciting challenge," Karikari, who also represented Ghana at the Under-20 Africa Cup, was quoted as saying by the CFC Media, after putting pen to papers.

Kwame Karikari

It was in 2015 when Karikari made a permanent move out of Sweden and joined Turkish side, Balikesirspor.

He played 40 matches for them in two seasons, registering 12 goals and five assists. Later he turned out for clubs in countries like Norway, Qatar, Georgia and Uzbekistan.

He was part of Dinamo Tabilisi's title-winning campaign in the 2018-19 Georgian league.

Talking about the club's third foreign signing this summer, CFC co-owner Vita Dani said, "I would like to welcome Kwame Karikari to the Chennaiyin family. I think he's got the technical ability and the physicality to succeed in India. We have had many great forwards at this club and I believe Kwame should be able to match those standards."

ISL: Chennayin FC name Thomas Brdaric as new coachISL: Chennayin FC name Thomas Brdaric as new coach

In the 2020-21 ISL season, the Yellow Brigade finished a poor eighth and failed to make it to the play-offs.

They had started the ISL 2021-22 season under Bozidar Bandovic before the well-travelled Montenegrin coach and the club decided to part ways midway through the campaign following a string of poor results.

Ex-India international Sabir Pasha then took over the Yellow Brigade on an interim basis.

Recently they roped in Thomas Brdaric as the new head coach of the club ahead of the upcoming season.

In his most recent spell, the German coach led KF Vllaznia to the Albanian Cup for two successive seasons (2020-21 and 2021-22).

The team also finished runners up in the Albanian Championship in the 2020-21 season.

Story first published: Saturday, July 2, 2022, 13:00 [IST]
Other articles published on Jul 2, 2022