Draft:Keanu Ebanks

Keanu Ebanks (born 7 April 1994) is a British-American football offensive tackle for the Panthers Wrocław of the European League of Football (ELF).

College career
Ebanks started playing American football at the University of Hull with the Sharks in 2013, where he started on both the offensive line and defensive line. With the Sharks, Ebanks won the North Division title once. He contributed significantly to this success, among other things, with a blocked field goal against Leeds Beckitt University shortly before the end of the game.

Professional career
For the 2018 season, Ebanks set himself the goal of playing in the German Football League, which is why he wrote to every German GFL team. After the Hildesheim Invaders invited him to a training session, the Invades decided to sign the Brit several months later: “It's not easy for most Brits to get into the GFL. I created a Europlayers account in 2017 and started writing to clubs. It felt like I had written to every team in Germany and received no response. Finally I got a message from Hildesheim who decided to invite me to training later this year. I then had to wait a few months before hearing from them. “I was in the process of signing with a team in France when I got the call,” said Ebanks. With the Invaders, Ebanks was only used on the offensive line, but became a permanent fixture there. In the 2019 GFL season, he played in the left tackle position and reached the playoffs with the Invaders for the first time in their team history. After the season, he was invited to the NFL Global Combine in Cologne to recommend himself for the International Player Pathway Program. In addition, he participated in the CFL Combine in January 2020 and declared for the Canadian Football League draft.

Due to the COVID-19-pandemic, the GFL and CFL seasons were canceled, but Ebanks decided he still wanted to play football. Therefore, the Brit moved to the Stockholm Mean Machines in the Swedish Superserien. With the Mean Machines, Ebanks reached the final, which was lost 12:14 to the Carlstad Crusaders. In spring 2021, Ebanks took part in the CFL Virtual Combine and was again registered for the Canadian professional league's Global Draft. In the 40-yard dash, Ebanks ran a time of 5.40 seconds, in the bench press he achieved 24 repetitions and in the standing broad jump he jumped 2.67 meters. Ebanks was not selected by any franchise in the draft. Instead, he was signed by the Hamburg Sea Devils for the historic first season of the European League of Football in 2021. For the Sea Devils, he was the starting left tackle and part of an O-line that allowed 26 sacks in ten regular season games. Ebanks was also responsible for a total of eleven penalties, six times for a false start and five times for a holding. After the conclusion of the regular season, he was named to the ELF All Star Team. In the final of the first ELF championship, the Sea Devils lost 30:32 to the Frankfurt Galaxy. At the end of the year, Ebanks was named to the AFI's All-Europe Team 2021 by the sports magazine American Football International.

For the 2022 season, he initially moved to the Panthers Wrocław, who play in the same conference as the Sea Devils. Before the start of the ELF season, however, he was signed by the Calgary Stampeders from the Canadian Football League (CFL) in March 2022. He spent the entire CFL season on the practice roster. On May 13, 2023, Ebanks was released by the Stampeders after being injured in the first camp.

A few weeks later he was signed by the Paris Musketeers from the ELF. In December 2023, he moved back to the Panthers Wrocław for the subsequent ELF season.