John Paintsil

Early career

A player comfortable at right back or in midfield, Paintsil had stints in his native Ghana with Berekum Arsenal and Liberty Professionals and a brief spell with Polish side Widzew Łódź before moving to Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2002.

Maccabi Tel Aviv

Pantsil joined Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2002, where he was a member of the team that won both the Israeli title and reached the Cup semi-final. He made 46 league appearances and five appearances in the Champions League.

Hapoel Tel Aviv

In December 2004, he transferred to rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv helping them to second place in the league in 2006 and to win the Israeli State Cup in May 2006. He made 42 appearances for Hapoel, scoring three goals.

West Ham United

After the 2006 World Cup, Israeli international Yossi Benayoun recommended Paintsil to West Ham United manager Alan Pardew as the Premier League club was in need of a right-back. Pardew took Pantsil with the rest of the squad on their pre-season tour of Sweden. Impressive performances by Paintsil during West Ham's Swedish tour allowed him to gain favour with Pardew. In August 2006, West Ham completed the signing of Paintsil after a work permit was granted. Paintsil was given the number 14 shirt at West Ham and competed for a place in the side with Tyrone Mears and Jonathan Spector. He made only five appearances for West Ham during the 2006–07 season and in the summer of 2007 was weighing up his options in…

Paintsil was a member of the Ghana Under 21 team who were runner-up in the FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina in 2001 and played for the senior team in the African Cup of Nations in Mali in 2002 and Egypt in 2006. He was also a member of the Ghana 2004 Olympics football team who exited in the first round in Greece, having finished in third place in Group B. Paintsil played in all the matches of Ghana's national team in the 2006 World Cup finals, where Ghana were beaten by Brazil in the second round. Following the first and second goals in Ghana's 2–0 victory over the Czech Republic on 17 June 2006, he celebrated by waving an Israeli flag, he also waved as the final whistle blew. This action provoked some protests in his native country Ghana and the Arab world. Afterwards the Ghanaian Football Association issued an apology, and said of Pantsil "He was naive". He was a member of the Ghanaian 2010 World Cup team that reached the quarter-finals in South Africa before losing to Uruguay. He played in all five games. On 13 June 2010, in a World Cup group-stage match against Serbia, another variation of his name appeared on his jersey, Panstil.

Kaizer Chiefs

On 27 June 2016, Paintsil became the new assistant manager at Kaizer Chiefs. He currently serves as an assistant coach of the Ghana national football team, the Black Stars, a role he held during Ghana’s build-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup along side Fatau Dauda and Joseph Laumann.

Paintsil's family reportedly received repeated death threats in Ghana. His younger brother Mark fled to Israel on a tourist visa. His visa expired and he was jailed whilst applying for political asylum pending immigration status decisions. According to Mark, the rest of the family is in Britain and cannot go back to Ghana. He was quoted as saying "I cannot return to Ghana because I truly fear for my life. My sister, after returning to Ghana, joined my brother and parents in London immediately, and now I am in prison and there is nothing I can do." John is also famous for his lap of honor at home matches, he sometimes only wears one sleeve on his left arm in the winter, leaving his right arm bare by simply cutting off the other sleeve. During an interview with The West Ham Way, Paintsil revealed that a dream where he played particularly well with one long and one short sleeve led to him adopting this unusual habit. In September 2024, Paintsil was involved in a car crash along with Otto Addo and Fatau Dauda after their vehicle was damaged as it avoided a head-on collision with a pick-up truck that veered into their lane. The Ghana Football Association issued a statement shortly after the incident confirming that all three individuals were in stable condition.