Suleyman Ali "Sulley" Muntari (born 27 August 1984) is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his career in Italy, playing for clubs such as Udinese, Inter Milan, and AC Milan.
Spoken about as a talented footballer at a young age, Muntari started his youth career in Ghana with Liberty Professionals before joining Udinese where he progressed from their academy into becoming a first team player. He featured in over 150 matches for Udinese and scored 9 goals before securing a move to join English team Portsmouth then English Premier League. He spent only a season with the Pompey and was also part of the team that won the FA Cup in 2007–08.
His performance in the Premier League and the FA Cup earned him a move to join Inter Milan in 2008. During his time with Inter Milan, he helped the team win the Champions League in 2009–10 and the Serie A title in 2008–09 and 2009–10 among other trophies.
After becoming a full international in 2002, Muntari earned over 80 caps for the Ghana national team and was selected for two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments and three FIFA World Cups. He was also a member of the Ghana U20 team that placed second in the African Youth Championship and FIFA U-20 World Cup both in 2001.
He is the elder brother of former Tambov player Sulley Muniru.
Club career
Early career Muntari's abilities first came to light in youth tournaments, while he was playing for Liberty Professionals youth team. He became a regular member of Ghana under-20 team at the age of 16 as they finished runners-up at the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina, losing out to the hosts in the final. Despite impressing during a trial with Manchester United after the tournament, he ended up joining Italian club Udinese.
Udinese He joined Udinese in 2001, where his first season was spent in the reserves. He made his first-team debut on 6 November 2002, against Milan.
In his second full season, he made 23 appearances, and increased his standing to 33 appearances the following season, although indiscipline saw him sent off three times in 16 matches in the 2006–07 season. He left Udinese for Portsmouth after five seasons in Italy.
Portsmouth Muntari had already indicated a desire to move to the English Premier League, when in early 2007 transfer bids were received from Portsmouth. He eventually opted for Portsmouth and transferred on 30 May 2007, for a new club record fee, believed to be around £7.1 million, signing a five-year contract.
He was a regular member of the first XI throughout the 2007–08 season, playing 29 League matches and scoring four goals. He made his Premier league debut on the opening match-day on 11 August 2007 in Pompey's 2–2 away draw against Derby County. On 29 September, Muntari scored his first goal and provided an assist in a thrilling 7–4 victory over Reading. Muntari scored the seventh goal of the match from the penalty spot in stoppage time after Kranjcar was fouled by Rosenior. The scoreline set a record as the highest scoring match in Premier League history. His skill, tenacity and football ability were praised for his performance in this match. On 24 November, Muntari scored his second league goal against Birmingham help Portsmouth to a 2–0 victory. He scored against his Ghanaian compatriot Richard Kingson, who was making his Premier League debut in goal for the Blues.
His performance of note was away at Aston Villa where he scored two spectacular long-range goals. He also played four FA Cup matches, scoring the winner from the penalty spot in a 1–0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Sixth round of the FA Cup. His winner led to their progress into the semi-finals. He was in the starting XI that won the 2008 FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium over Cardiff City. He left Fratton Park after one season to join Internazionale.
Inter Milan On 2 March 2007, it was reported in the Italian press that Inter Milan were preparing a summer offer for the midfielder. Injuries to Esteban Cambiasso and Patrick Vieira underlined just how short of ball-winning midfielders the Nerazzurri were, and they would be looking to remedy the problem in June 2007. Transfer consultants Marco Branca and Gabriele Oriali were looking around Europe for possible options and Muntari seemed to be their man at the insistence of coach Roberto Mancini, although Muntari ultimately went to Portsmouth in the summer of 2007. On 21 July 2008, however, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that with the probable failure of new Inter coach José Mourinho to land his former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard, Muntari was now his top target central midfield target. The reports gathered pace in the Italian press in the next few days that Muntari had already agreed a four-year contract with Inter. In an interview in 2022, he revealed that he agreed to sign after Mourinho called him and asked if he wanted to play for him, to which he replied yes.
But Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp told Sky Sports News, "I don't want to sell him. He is one of my best players and is a terrific young talent" when quizzed about Inter's supposed interest in Muntari. On 24 July 2008, the BBC and Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Muntari would complete a €14 million plus bonuses move to Inter. He finally completed his move to Inter on 28 July 2008 and wore the number 20 jersey, previously worn by Álvaro Recoba for many years.
2008–09 season On 24 August, Muntari made his competitive debut for Inter Milan in the club's victory over Roma in the Italian Super Cup. He scored the first goal with the match ending in a 2–2 draw after extra time before Inter won the trophy on penalties.
On 22 November 2008, Muntari scored the winner, redirecting a wayward Zlatan Ibrahimović shot, in the Derby d'Italia against rivals Juventus. The victory was Inter's first victory over Juventus at San Siro after four years. Two weeks later, Muntari scored a backheel goal against Napoli at the San Siro after a great cross from Maicon, a match that ended 2–1 for Inter. In the very last Serie A match of the season, on 31 May 2009 against Atalanta, he opened the scoring for Inter after blasting in a Luís Figo cross from outside the penalty box. Later, his shot on goal was parried by the goalkeeper, but Esteban Cambiasso scored from the rebound to make the score 3–3. Inter eventually won 4–3 and Muntari won his first Scudetto after his first season with the club.
2009–10 season Ahead of the 2009–10 season, Muntari was assigned the number 11 jersey. On 2 August 2009, Muntari featured for 84 minutes in the 2–1 2009 Supercoppa Italiana loss to Lazio. On 23 August, on the opening match day of the season, he came on to play 29 minutes of their 1–1 draw to Bari. He started his first Serie A match of the season, in their 2–1 victory over his former club Udinese on 3 October 2009. On 24 October, Muntari scored his first goal of the season to help Inter Milan to a 2–1 victory over Catania.
On 16 April 2010, in their match against Juventus, he came on in the 89th minute for Wesley Sneijder, and three minutes later he assisted Samuel Eto'o to score Inter Milan's second goal, securing a 2–0 victory. The following match day, Muntari played the full 90 minutes and scored his second goal of the season after a shot from Moussa Marega deflected off him, to help Inter Milan to a 3–1 win over Atalanta. At the end of the season, Inter Milan retained the Serie A title with Muntari playing a key role, playing 27 out of 38 matches, scoring 2 goals and providing two assists. He played in all of Inter Milan's Coppa Italia matches that season, as the club won the competition for the sixth time in its history. He came on as a late substitute in the final, which Inter Milan won 1–0 over AS Roma. During Inter Milan's first Champions League match of the season, Muntari started and played 62 minutes before taken off for Dejan Stanković in their goalless draw against Barcelona. Further on, in total, he played 9 matches out of 12 in their European berth as Inter Milan secured their third Champions League title after 45 years, since their second title in 1965. The title secured Inter Milan the first ever Italian treble (Serie A, the Coppa Italia, and the UEFA Champions League). In the final, Muntari came on as a second-half substitute, after Diego Milito had secured the title with two goals against Bayern Munich at the Santiago Bernabeu. He became the fourth Ghanaian to win the Champions League. Across all competitions that season, Muntari made 42 appearances and played a significant role in securing the treble.
2010–11 season After José Mourinho's departure, in the 2010–11 season, Muntari fell down the pecking order and was considered a fringe player by new manager Rafael Benitez. He came on as a substitute in four of their first five games of the season. There were multiple reports most notably from Sky Sports that Muntari wanted to leave for another team where he would be a first-team regular after missing out on the match-day squad for their match against Juventus on 5 October. He refused to sit in the stands to watch the game and instead went home after learning he had not been selected for the match-day squad. In a counter-interview, Benitez stated that he would meet with him to discuss the matter. The following match-day, Muntari came on as a late substitute for Wesley Sneijder, to play the final four minutes of their 1–0 victory over Cagliari Calcio. On 29 October, he came on in the 19th minute for injured Esteban Cambiasso to score 25-yard long range goal to secure a 1–0 away win against Genoa. Muntari won the 2010 FIFA Club World Cup with Inter after they defeated TP Mazembe 3–0 in the final. He was an unused substitute in the final however, he played 13 minutes of the 3–0 semi-final victory over Seongnam FC.
On 15 January 2011, Inter Technical Director Marco Branca confirmed Muntari had handed in an official transfer request. A number of Premier League clubs were speculated to be interested in Muntari.
Loan to Sunderland On 26 January 2011, Premier League club Sunderland were given permission to hold talks with Muntari, and on 29 January, he signed for Sunderland on loan from Inter until the end of the 2010–11 season. On 7 May 2011, he was initially credited with his first and only goal in a 2–1 win over Bolton Wanderers, but this was subsequently recorded as a Zat Knight own goal.
On 13 May 2011, Sunderland opted not to sign Muntari on a permanent basis, and he returned to Inter. He played the first half of the 2011–12 season for Inter Milan and played four league matches before going on loan to AC Milan.
AC Milan
2011–12 season
On 31 January 2012, Muntari joined AC Milan on loan. On 19 February 2012, Muntari scored his first goal as a Milan player on his debut, in a Serie A away match against Cesena, which Milan won 3–1. On 25 February 2012, with Milan leading 1–0 against Juventus, Muntari appeared to have doubled Milan's lead with a header from a cross by Urby Emanuelson, however the goal was not given by referee Paolo Tagliavento despite the ball crossing the line while being saved by Gianluigi Buffon; the match ended 1–1. On 2 May 2012, Muntari scored a goal against Atalanta in a game that ended 2–0, bringing Milan one point behind leaders Juventus. Juventus eventually went on to win the Serie A title that year, beating Milan to the Scudetto by four points.
Massimiliano Allegri said to Milan Channel in May 2012 that Muntari would play with Milan for a further two years until June 2014. Muntari officially signed for Milan on a free transfer after his Inter contract expired on 1 July 2012.
2012–13 season