Derby County completed the signing of Namibian international defender Ryan Nyambe in September 2023.

The right-back joined the Rams initially on a short-term deal, but his impressive performances for the side following his arrival saw him put pen-to-paper on an extension soon afterwards.

He made 21 appearances for Derby before suffering a thigh injury in February that would see him ruled out of action until the end of the promotion-winning campaign from League One.

Nyambe featured nine times at the start of the 2024/25 Championship season before a knee injury suffered away against Millwall in October, which saw him on the sidelines for over two months - but he recovered to tally up 17 second-tier appearances for the campaign.

He made a further seven Championship appearances in 2025/26 - starting the Rams' opening three matches of the campaign - before joining up with League One side Reading on loan in January.

Capped by Namibia on a number of occasions, Nyambe joined Derby with almost 250 appearances to his name in his professional career in English football following spells with both Blackburn Rovers and Wigan Athletic.

Nyambe was born in Namibia but moved to England at the age of ten.

He joined Blackburn Rovers’ Academy whilst he was a teenager and progressed through their ranks to earn professional terms in 2015, with his senior bow coming in an EFL Cup encounter against Shrewsbury Town in August of that year.

Nyambe established himself on the first team scene at Ewood Park in the 2016/17 season and made 28 appearances, as well as featuring for Rovers’ Under-21s in the EFL Trophy, and he bagged the club’s Young Player of the Season award despite their relegation to the third tier.

He was again a key player for Rovers in 2017/18 in League One as they gained automatic promotion to return to the Championship at the first time of asking, finishing second behind title-winners Wigan Athletic.

Nyambe remained a regular member of the Blackburn side in the Championship throughout the next four seasons, and he racked up over 200 appearances for the club before departing at the end of his contract in the summer of 2022.

His next destination was Wigan Athletic, and he spent the 2022/23 campaign with the Latics in the second tier. Nyambe recorded 33 appearances in total for Wigan before departing at the end of the campaign following the side’s relegation back to League One.

Nyambe has played for Namibia in both the African Cup of Nations and FIFA World Cup qualifiers, with his debut coming in a friendly against Ghana in June 2019. He went on to feature in the Africa Cup of Nations soon afterwards.