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George Blay
Personal information
Date of birth	7 August 1980 (age 44)
Place of birth	Elmina, Ghana
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Right-back
Senior career*
Years	Team
1996–1997	Sekondi Hasaacas
1997–2002	Standard Liège
2002–2003	Mechelen
2003–2006	La Louviére
2006–2009	Dinamo București
2010	Internațional Curtea de Argeș
2010–2011	Unirea Urziceni
2011–2012	Royal Antwerp
Total
International career
1999	Ghana U20
2000–2002	Ghana
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

George Blay (born 7 August 1980) is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as a right-back.^[1]

Club career

George Blay was born on 7 August 1980 in Elmina, Ghana and started to play football at Sekondi Hasaacas.^[1]^[2] He went to play in Belgium for Standard Liège, making his Belgian First Division debut under coach Aad de Mos on 31 August 1997 in a 3–0 away victory against Germinal Ekeren.^[1]^[3]^[4] He spent a total of five seasons at Standard, reaching two Belgian Cup finals under the guidance of coach Tomislav Ivić, however both of them were lost.^[1]^[2]^[4] Blay afterwards went to play for one season at Mechelen and in 2003 he went to play for three seasons at La Louviére.^[1]^[2]^[4]^[5] In 2006, Blay was transferred in Romania at Dinamo București, being recommended by his former Standard teammate, Liviu Ciobotariu, making his Liga I debut on 30 July 2006 in a 2–1 away victory against Național București, being used in his first season spent at the club by coach Mircea Rednic in 31 out of 34 rounds as the club won the title, also appearing in 12 matches as the club reached the sixteenths-finals of the 2006–07 UEFA Cup where they were eliminated with 3–1 on aggregate by Benfica.^[2]^[4]^[6]^[7]^[8] In the following season The Red Dogs had the objective of reaching the Champions League group stage, Blay playing in both legs of the third qualifying round against Lazio Roma, which however was lost with 4–2 on aggregate.^[2]^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13] In 2009 he went to play at Internațional Curtea de Argeș and Unirea Urziceni, before in 2011 he returned to Belgium and signed with Royal Antwerp in the Belgian Second Division who bought him to replace Bart Van Zundert, retiring at the end of the 2011–12 season.^[2]^[4]^[6]^[14] George Blay has a total of 180 Belgian First Division matches in which he scored 3 goals, made 80 appearances in Liga I and played 25 games in which he scored one goal in European competitions (including 3 appearances in the Intertoto Cup).^[1]^[2]

International career

George Blay played 7 games and scored one goal for Ghana, making his debut under coach Giuseppe Dossena on 8 April 2000 in a 1–0 away victory against Tanzania at the 2002 World Cup qualifiers first round.^[15]^[16] His following game was a 5–0 home victory against Sierra Leone at the 2002 World Cup qualifiers second round and in his third game played he scored his only goal for the national team in a friendly which ended 1–1 against Algeria.^[15] He was selected by coach Fred Osam-Duodu to be part of Ghana's squad from the 2002 African Cup of Nations, playing in all three games from the group stage, as the team qualified to the quarterfinals where he did not play in the 1–0 loss against Nigeria.^[15]^[17] On 17 May 2002, Blay made his last appearance for Ghana in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 loss against Slovenia.^[15] He also played for Ghana's under-20 national team, participating at the 1999 World Youth Championship where he made five appearances, helping the team reach the quarterfinals where they lost at the penalty kicks in front of Spain, who eventually won the competition.^[18]^[19]

International goals

Scores and results list Ghana's goal tally first. "Score" column indicates the score after each George Blay goal.^[20]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	5 December 2001	Stade du 5 Juillet, Algiers, Algeria	Algeria	1–0	1–1	Friendly

Honours

Standard Liège

Belgian Cup runner-up: 1998–99, 1999–00^[2]

Dinamo București

Liga I: 2006–07^[2]
Supercupa României runner-up: 2007^[21]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f George Blay at WorldFootball.net
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ George Blay at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
^ "KFC Germinal Ekeren vs. Standard Liège 0–3". WorldFootball. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "George Blay is back !" (in Dutch). Walfoot.be. 27 August 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
^ "Blay lands at Louviéroise". Uefa.com. 12 June 2003. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
^ ^a ^b "Dinamo prin ochii lui George Blay: cum îl descrie pe Mircea Rednic, ce a însemnat episodul Lazio și caracterizările lui Ștefan Radu sau Cosmin Moți. "Spune-mi, te rog, Dinamo chiar a retrogradat?"" [Dinamo through the eyes of George Blay: how he describes Mircea Rednic, what the Lazio episode meant and the characterizations of Ștefan Radu or Cosmin Moți. "Tell me, please, Dinamo really relegated?"] (in Romanian). Playsport.ro. 29 August 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
^ "Dinamo - Benfica 1-2" (in Romanian). Hotnews.ro. 22 February 2007. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
^ "Dinamo – Benfica 1-2 (Cupa UEFA, 22 februarie 2007 – turul 3)" [Dinamo – Benfica 1-2 (UEFA Cup, February 22, 2007 – round 3)] (in Romanian). Tikitaka.ro. 22 February 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
^ ""Doar" un egal: Lazio 1 - 1 Dinamo!" ["Just" a draw: Lazio 1 - 1 Dinamo!] (in Romanian). Sport.ro. 14 August 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
^ "Liga Campionilor - Lazio - Dinamo 1 -1 - Ingerul cu mănuşi" [Champions League - Lazio - Dinamo 1 -1 - The angel with gloves] (in Romanian). Jurnalul.ro. 15 August 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
^ "Rapusi in 20 de minute" [Destroyed in 20 minutes] (in Romanian). Ziaruldeiasi.ro. 29 August 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
^ "Dinamo: Visul frumos s-a terminat" [Dinamo: The beautiful dream is over] (in Romanian). Evz.ro. 29 August 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
^ "Dezastru pentru echipa lui Rednic: Dinamo 1 - 3 Lazio" [Disaster for Rednic's team: Dinamo 1 - 3 Lazio] (in Romanian). Sport.ro. 6 December 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
^ "Fostul dinamovist George Blay s-a transferat la Antwerp" [The former Dinamo player George Blay signed with Antwerp] (in Romanian). Gsp.ro. 29 August 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "George Blay". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann.
^ "Tanzania 0-1 Ghana". National-football-teams.com. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
^ "Nigeria 1-0 Ghana". National-football-teams.com. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
^ "George Blay - U20 World Cup 1999 Nigeria". WorldFootball. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
^ "U20 World Cup 1999 Nigeria - Final". WorldFootball. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
^ "Algeria v Ghana, 05 December 2001". 11v11. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
^ "Romanian Supercup – Season 2007". RomanianSoccer. Retrieved 3 November 2023.