Ibrahim Tanko

Ibrahim Anyars Tanko is a Ghanaian football coach and former midfielder who won two Bundesliga titles and the UEFA Champions League with Borussia Dortmund. On 16 October 2026 the Ghana Football Association named him an assistant in the interim Black Stars technical team for the November internationals, under Kim Lars Björkegren and alongside Godwin Attram.

Playing career

Tanko was born in Kumasi on 25 July 1977 and came through King Faisal Babes. Borussia Dortmund signed him at 17, and he made his Bundesliga debut on 24 September 1994 in a 5-0 win over VfB Stuttgart, becoming one of the youngest players in the club's history. He was part of the squads that won the Bundesliga in 1994-95 and 1995-96 and the Champions League in 1996-97, when he made three substitute appearances. Dortmund released him in 2001 after he tested positive for cannabis.

He joined SC Freiburg in January 2001 and stayed until 2007, overcoming a serious knee injury, before retiring at 30. He won nine caps for Ghana between 1996 and 2004 and was in the squad that finished fourth at the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations.

Coaching career

Tanko began coaching with Freiburg's reserves in 2007, then followed Volker Finke to Urawa Red Diamonds in Japan and worked under Stale Solbakken at 1. FC Koln in 2011. He became Ghana's head scout in 2012, joined Finke's staff with Cameroon in 2013, and returned home in 2017 as first assistant to James Kwesi Appiah with the Black Stars.

From late 2018 he coached the Black Meteors, the Under-23 side, taking them to the 2019 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations in Egypt, their first appearance in 12 years; they missed the Tokyo Olympics after a penalty shoot-out defeat to South Africa. He also coached the local Black Stars (Ghana A') from January 2020 and was reappointed Black Meteors coach in June 2022.

Personal life

Tanko is a Muslim, is married with three children and speaks English, French and German.