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Manuel "Junior" Agogo (1 August 1979 – 22 August 2019) was a Ghanaian professional footballer who played as a striker. He was born in Ghana but spent most of his childhood in the UK. He then moved back to Ghana during his years in secondary school. He began his youth career at Sheffield Wednesday in 1995, moving up to the senior squad in 1997. He played for fifteen different clubs over the next fifteen years, before retiring from professional football in 2012. He spent most of his playing career in England, with additional spells in the US, Egypt, Cyprus and Scotland. His longest spell was at Bristol Rovers (2003–2006), where he made 140 appearances and scored over 40 goals before moving to Nottingham Forest.
Agogo played for the Ghana national team between 2006 and 2009. His three goals in the final stages of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations helped Ghana to a third-place finish, adding to the three club honours he earned during his career. Agogo scored a total of 143 goals during his professional football career. After retiring, he opened his own small group and personal fitness training business.
He was traded from Colorado to the San Jose Earthquakes in June 2001 for Chris Carrieri. He played for the Earthquakes for the rest of the 2001 season, culminating with their MLS Championship victory, but was waived early in the 2002 pre-season, and replaced on the San Jose roster by Devin Barclay.
On 22 September 2007 Agogo scored his first goals of the 2007–08 season, a hat-trick in a 4–0 win over Gillingham – the first of his career. He netted two long-range strikes that season with a 35-yard lob of the goalkeeper in Forest's 3–0 win at Yeovil Town and a 25-yard effort in Forest's 4–1 success against Southend United. However, Agogo scored only three goals after his return from the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, one of which was against Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road. He finished as Forest's top-scorer that season with thirteen goals, helping the club gain automatic promotion to the Championship.
On 14 November 2006, Agogo scored his first goal for Ghana, the equaliser in a friendly against Australia; the game finished 1–1. He also scored the third goal in Ghana's 4–1 victory over Nigeria, played at Brentford's Griffin Park.
Agogo was called up to the Ghana squad for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations. He played in the first game of the cup against Guinea, hitting the post with a header in the 20th minute and helping Ghana to a 2–1 victory. He then scored in the following game against Namibia, tapping home Michael Essien's cross for the only goal of the game.
Agogo then netted another goal, an 84th minute winner, in the quarter final against Nigeria after John Mensah had been shown a red card in the 60th minute. Ghana missed out on the final, however, and had to settle for a third-place play-off against Ivory Coast, in which he scored again in a 4–2 victory. Alongside Sulley Muntari he was Ghana's top scorer in the competition, and the 5th highest scorer overall.
In total, Agogo scored 12 goals in 27 matches for the national team between 2006 and 2009.
During an interview in 2008, Agogo revealed that he planned to open his own restaurant after his football career. However, Agogo instead started his own fitness training business.
On 26 August 2019, four days after his death, Nottingham Forest fans paid tribute to the striker in the 23rd minute of their match against Derby County in the EFL Cup. Agogo wore the number 23 jersey during their League One promotion campaign.
Bristol Rovers players wore number 9 shirts adorned with Agogo's name during their warm-up before their match against Oxford United on 24 August 2019. Prior to kick-off, both sets of players stood around the centre circle and applauded for a minute while the message "RIP Junior Agogo" was displayed on the scoreboard. Fans also sang and chanted his name.
Apollon Limassol
Ghana
Individual
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