Ryan Nyambe arrived at the DW Stadium in the summer of 2022 having spent 11 years with fellow Sky Bet Championship side Blackburn Rovers.

The right-sided defender grew up living in Namibia before moving to England at a young age. Having previously played for his school and local team, Nyambe joined the Blackburn Rovers Academy in 2011 at the age of 13. 

He impressed throughout his progression through the age groups, later signing his first professional deal in July 2015. Just over a month later, Nyambe made his professional debut, being named in the starting XI for Rovers’ First Round EFL Cup tie against Shrewsbury Town. His league debut later followed in November 2016, as he came off the bench in a 3-2 victory against Brentford. 

Despite Blackburn’s relegation to League One at the end of that season, Nyambe enjoyed his breakthrough year in the 2016/17 campaign, as he made 31 appearances and was named as the Club’s Young Player of the Year. 

The 24-year-old continued to feature regularly in the following season, and helped Blackburn achieve promotion back to the Championship at the first attempt, making 35 appearances over the course of the campaign. 

A consistent and reliable performer throughout his time at Ewood Park, Nyambe played a huge role in helping Rovers consolidate in the Championship, and narrowly miss out on the Play-Offs in the 2021/22 campaign. 

Despite still being in the relative infancy of his career, Nyambe has over 200 career appearances to his name, with a large percentage of those being in the second tier.