Non-League and Academy football writer

A very versatile player, and someone who has played at a high level of non-League football in the past, Junior Appiah is a player whose experience and quality has made him a very important player for step 6 side FC Baresi, during his time with the club so far. Back in the 2006/07 season of the Middlesex County Football League, Junior was starting out on his senior footballing journey, playing for FC Baresi in the Division Three (East). During that 2006/07 season, when FC Baresi were playing in the Middlesex League, their senior team was pretty much a youth team, giving young and talented players the opportunity to play senior football. 

Now in his mid 30s, Junior Appiah was one of those young players who did really well for FC Baresi in the Middlesex League. And during the 2006/07 season, a season in which he shared the pitch with the current FC Baresi first team manager (Tufail Amjad), Junior scored an impressive nine goals from 12 league appearances. FC Baresi would win that division that season, even winning one league fixture 18-0, against Freezywater. Junior can play across the defence, in central-defence and at full-back, as well as a winger, and as a centre-forward. He would score a good number of goals for FC Baresi, last season (2023/24) at step 7 of the Essex Alliance Football League, after missing quite a big part of the early stages of the season through injury.

Having achieved some really good things in non-League football, having played for clubs such as Waltham Abbey, Aveley and Ware, Junior’s experience of the game has been really valuable for FC Baresi, who are now playing their football at step 6 of the non-League system. A very technically gifted player who has fine ball control, and who has retained a good amount of pace going into his 30s, Junior has really impressed me in games that I have seen him in, in various positions. When playing in central-defence during the current 2024/25 season, I think that he’s shown both real leadership and some really clever decision making in defence. He reads the game really well from defence, and he has real quality and distribution with the ball at his feet.

Junior recently scored a superb hat-trick, in an important 4-1 league win for FC Baresi, against Hoddesdon Town. With a real variety of finishes (he scored an outstanding volleyed goal against Kit Out London, last season), Junior is clinical inside of the penalty area, and he has a lot of good qualities to his all-round game. He will continue to be a very important player for FC Baresi during the remainder of this long season, at the club where he started his non-League footballing journey at.