Charles Kwabla Akonnor (born 12 March 1974 in

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

) is a former Ghanaian international

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who is the former manager of the

Ghana national team The Ghana national football team represents Ghana in men's international football, doing it since 1957. The team consists of twenty players including the technical team. The team is nicknamed the Black Stars after the Black Star of Africa in ...

. He played as a versatile

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, mostly in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. He started his career in Ghana with a colts team Young Hearts, before joining

Okwawu United Okwawu United is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Nkawkaw Nkawkaw is a town in southern Ghana and is the capital of Kwahu East District, an area in the Eastern Region of south Ghana. Nkawkaw has a 2013 settlement population of ...

and later Obuasi Goldfields. In 1992, Akonnor moved to Germany with

Samuel Kuffour Samuel Osei "Sammy" Kuffour (born 3 September 1976) is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Known for his physical power, Kuffour is best remembered for his time with Bayern Munich, whom he represented for ...

and joined then

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

side

Fortuna Köln Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at ...

, where he would spend six seasons and appear in over 150 matches and score over 25 goals before securing a move to

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

side VfL Wolfsburg where he made his name. At Wolfsburg, Akonnor played over 140 matches, scored over 20 goals and served as captain in the 2001–02 season before leaving the club in 2004 to join SpVgg Unterhaching. At the international level, he was capped for Ghana at the U20, U23 and the senior team. At the youth level, he starred for Ghana and helped them to third place during the

1991 African Youth Championship The 1991 African Youth Championship was a football tournament for under-20 players. It was held in Egypt from 22 February until 8 March 1991. The two best teams qualified for the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship. Qualifying First round The firs ...

and second place during the

1993 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship, known as the 1993 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Youth Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 9th edition FIFA World Youth Championship. U20 Brazil defeated Ghana, 2–1 for its third title. It took place ac ...

. At the senior level he made 51 appearances and scored 13 goals for Ghana between 1991 and 2001 and captained the team from 1998 to 2001. Akonnor also represented Ghana at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

and in four

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, serving as captain in 2000. In 1998, he was also named in the CAF XI of the year and AFCON Team of the Tournament.

Early life

Akonnor was born and bred in Nungua, a suburb of

but hails from Ningo Prampram in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana making him a Ga-Adangbe. He had his basic and junior high school education at Nungua Primary School/JHS and later proceeded to the Nungua Presbyterian Secondary and Commercial School for his secondary school education. Whilst in school, he played football and was an integral member of the school's football team whilst representing the school in juvenile championships and other inter-school games.

Club career

Akonnor started his career with colts club Young Hearts located in Tema in 1985. He was scouted by former

Ghana Premier League The is the top professional association football division of the football league system in Ghana. Officially formed in 1956 to replace a previous league incarnation, the Gold Coast Club Competition (which began in 1933 and ended in 1953–54), t ...

side

, signing for the team in 1988. He played there till 1990 when he secured a deal to join Obuasi Goldfields.

Fortuna Köln

Akonnor first came to Germany in 1992, along with friend and national teammate

. He joined

in 1992 upon his arrival. He played for the side for six years, playing 159 matches in all competitions (153 league matches) and scoring 26 goals all in league matches, averaging a minimum of 26 matches per season.

VfL Wolfsburg

Having played for six years with Fortuna Köln (all in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

), he switched in 1998 to

side VfL Wolfsburg. He made his competitive debut for the club on 15 August 1998, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 league loss to

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. On 28 August 1998, Akonnor scored his competitive debut goal, by scoring the winning goal in the 88th minute of a 4–3 DFB-Pokal victory against

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the D ...

. On 19 September 1998, he scored his debut league goal in a 4–2 loss to Werder Bremen. At Wolfsburg, Akonnor quickly developed as a resourceful player and one of the team's most important elements and, in 2001–02, was given team captaincy. However, at the start of the following season he was injured (a

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

problem which required an operation in 2003) causing him to miss a greater part of the season. He left the club in January 2004 after five seasons, playing 140 matches in all competitions (121 league matches) and scoring 23 goals (13 in league matches), averaging 28 league matches per season.

SpVgg Unterhaching

His initial injury whilst at Wolfsburg, prompted a January 2004 move to SpVgg Unterhaching, a return to the

. He made his debut for the club on 31 January in their 3–1 victory over

SpVgg Greuther Fürth Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth (), commonly known as Greuther Fürth (), is a German football club based in Fürth, Bavaria. They play in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of the German football league system, following relegation from the B ...

. On 5 April 2004, he scored his debut goal, by scoring Unterhaching's only goal in a 3–1 loss to Rot-Weiß Oberhausen. Akonnor immediately became an important player in their team with his experience from playing in the Bundesliga, featuring in 15 of the 17 league matches in the second round of the 2003–04 season. The following season, he played 31 matches, missing only 3 matches and scored three goals. One of his goals, came in the league match against

FC Erzgebirge Aue Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. ...

, which he scored the second goal to help SpVgg Unterhaching to a comfortable 4–1 victory. At the end of his two-year spell, he had played in 48 matches in all competitions (46 league matches) and scored 4 goals.

Later years

In 2005, Akonnor moved to

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

to play with AC Horsens, playing an important part in the team's consolidation in the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

, where they had just arrived in the previous season. He played one final season in Cyprus' top flight, with

Alki Larnaca FC Alki Larnaca ( el, ΑΛΚΗ Λάρνακας, ''ALKI Larnakas'') was a Cypriot football club based in the town of Larnaca. The club was founded in 1948 and it was dissolved on the 6th of May of 2014 due to financial issues. The club's colours wer ...

. In Summer 2008 left Cyprus and moved to

based club SC Langenhagen in the Oberliga Niedersachenliga-West on a one-year contract. He played there until 18 February 2009 when he announced the end of his career.

International career

At the international level, he capped for Ghana at the under-20 level, U23 and the senior team. At the youth level, he starred for Ghana, and helped them third place during the

but unfortunately losing out on qualifying for the World Youth Championship. Two years later the team returned and this time won 1993 African Youth Championship and qualified for the World Youth Championship. The team went on and placed second at the

, losing to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

by 2–1 in the final after

Emmanuel Duah Emmanuel Duah (born 14 November 1976) is a Ghanaian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder#Winger, winger. Club career Duah was born in Kumasi, Ghana. After his exploits at the 1991 FIFA U-17 World Champ ...

had put Ghana ahead in the first half. In the team's route to the final, he scored a goal in their final group stage match

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

to help them to a 2–0 victory and qualify for the quarter finals. Akonnor along with players from that squad like Samuel Osei Kuffour, Mohamed Gargo, Augustine Arhinful,

and Stephen Baidoo would later graduate into the senior team to become the core members. In July 1996, he was part and served as captain of the 1996 Ghana Olympic squad at the

. The team finished in second place in

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...

, but later lost and exit the competition in the quarter-finals after losing

, a match which Akonnor scored the initial equalizer to grant Ghana a 1–1 before half time but lost by 4–2 at the end through a brace from

Ronaldo Ronaldo is a Portuguese given name equivalent to the English Ronald. It became a common name in all Portuguese-speaking countries, being also prevalent in Italy and Spanish-speaking countries. People Notable people known as Ronaldo include: As ...

and a goal from

Bebeto José Roberto Gama de Oliveira (born 16 February 1964), known as Bebeto (), is a Brazilian former professional football player who played as a forward. He entered politics in the 2010 Brazilian General Elections and was elected to the Legi ...

. For the senior team Akonnor would go on and make 51

international caps In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

and later was named

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the Black Stars following Abedi Pele's retirement. However, he would never be recalled again after applying for (and receiving)

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

citizenship.

Coaching career

Sekondi Wise Fighters

On 19 February 2009, Akunnor signed a contract as head coach for

Sekondi Wise Fighters Sekondi Eleven Wise Football Club is a Ghanaian professional association football club, based in Sekondi Sekondi-Takoradi is a city in Ghana comprising the twin cities of Sekondi and Takoradi. It is the capital of Sekondi – Takoradi Metropo ...

where he worked with his former national teammate

Nii Lamptey Nii Odartey Lamptey (born 10 December 1974) is a Ghanaian former professional footballer and current manager of Elmina Sharks as well as the proprietor of a school in Accra called Glow-Lamp International School. During his career he played as ...

as his assistant. On 22 January 2010, he was named as the director of sport of the

. His successor as head coach was

Hans-Dieter Schmidt Hans-Dieter Schmidt (born 9 January 1948) is a former German football player turned manager. Playing career Schmidt's playing career – part of which he spent with Hannover 96 – ended early after a severe injury at the age of 23. Coaching ca ...

Accra Hearts of Oak

On 19 March 2012, Akonnor was named as head coach of the

Glo Premier League The is the top professional association football division of the football league system in Ghana. Officially formed in 1956 to replace a previous league incarnation, the Gold Coast Club Competition (which began in 1933 and ended in 1953–54), t ...

club

Hearts of Oak Hearts most commonly refers to: * Hearts (card game), a trick-taking game * Hearts (suit), one of the standard four suits of cards * Heart, an organ Hearts may also refer to: Music * The Hearts, an American girl group closely related to the Jay ...

succeeding

Nebojša Vučićević Nebojša "Uške" Vučićević (; 29 June 1962 – 11 March 2022) was a Serbian football manager and player. Club career Vučićević started out at OFK Beograd, before transferring to Partizan in 1984. He spent the following five seasons with t ...

. In November 2012, he was sacked after a poor start of the season with the club picking four points of a possible 15 with losses in their last three games to

Ebusua Dwarfs Cape Coast Mysterious Ebusua Dwarfs is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Cape Coast. The club competes in the Ghana Premier League, the Premier division on the Ghanaian football pyramid, and hold home games at Cape Coast Sports Stadi ...

, Wa All Stars and

Berekum Chelsea Berekum United Football Club is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Berekum, Bono Region, previously known as Bechem Chelsea Football Club. They compete in the Ghanaian top-flight league called the First Capital Premier League. Hist ...

Dreams

In 2014, Akonnor was appointed as the head coach of then

Ghana Division One League The Division One League is the second tier football league in Ghana organized by the Ghana Football Association. It was previously known by the title sponsor as the GN Bank Division One League. It is below the Ghana Premier League. The winner of e ...

side Dreams. The following year, he led the team to the Ghana Premier League for the time in the club's history after winning the 2015 Ghana Division One League Zone III getting promoted to compete in the 2016 Ghana Premier League season. In their debut GPL season, he led to ninth-place finish. The club was however demoted by the Ghana Football Association’s Disciplinary Committee to the

in December 2016 due to an anomaly with the registration of a player. He left the club permanently in November 2017 following his short-term contract with Ashanti Gold. He subsequently signed a permanent deal with Ashanti Gold.

Ashanti Gold

In April 2017, Akonnor returned to his boyhood club

Ashanti Gold The Ashanti Goldfields Corporation is a gold mining company based in Ghana that was founded by Joseph Ellis and Joseph Biney both from Cape Coast. The Ashanti Mine, located at Obuasi, 56 km south of Kumasi, has been producing since 1897. Dur ...

, to serve as head coach for the second round of the 2017 Ghana Premier League, after the club had been trailing at the bottom of the league table with eight points after eleven games out of which they had won two, drawn two and recorded seven losses. His contract with the club was on an interim basis as he was still under contract with Dreams. He led the team to escape relegation by winning ten matches, drawing three and losing six out of nineteen matches in process accumulating 33 points to finish the league season in 12th place with 41 points overall. He returned to the club in December 2017 on a permanent basis after departing Dreams on mutual terms. During the

2018 Ghanaian Premier League The 2018 Ghanaian Premier League was the 62nd season of top professional association football in Ghana. The season was initially scheduled to begin on 11 February 2018, but was postponed to 4 March 2018, and later postponed indefinitely. It was th ...

, he led the team to 2nd place on the league table before the league was cancelled in June 2018 by the government of Ghana's directive following the Number 12 Expose corruption scandal within Ghana Football Association. Within the season, he was adjudged the

GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general us ...

NASCO Coach of March after leading Ashanti Gold to three wins and one draw in four matches within the month. On 29 June 2018, he was sacked by the team, three days after he was suspended for failing to turn up for the club's training.

Asante Kotoko

On 1 October 2018, he was appointed as the head coach of

Asante Kotoko Asante Kotoko Sporting Club, simply known as Asante Kotoko, is a professional football club founded on 31 August 1935 and based in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Nicknamed the ''Porcupine Warriors'', they compete in the Ghana Premier Lea ...

replacing

Paa Kwesi Fabin Samuel Paa Kwesi Fabin (born 25 March 1959) is a Ghanaian professional football manager. He is the current coach of the Ghana national U-23 team. He is a former coach Ghana Premier League teams; Asante Kotoko S.C, Accra Hearts of Oak S.C. and ...

. He signed a two-year contract with the club running through until October 2020. He served for nine months, helping them to win the 2019 GFA Normalization Committee Special Competition and qualify for the

2019–20 CAF Champions League The 2019–20 CAF Champions League (officially the 2019–20 Total CAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 56th edition of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the 24t ...

. In July 2019, he was sacked by Asante Kotoko and replaced by

Kjetil Zachariassen Kjetil Zachariassen (born 30 November 1968 in Norway) is a Norwegian association football coach. He was previously the coach of Asante Kotoko S.C. and Ashanti Gold S.C. where he replaced Svetislav Tanasijevic in the second round of the Normalisa ...

Ghana National Team

In September 2019, he was shortlisted for the head coach of the Guinea national team role but French national

Didier Six Didier Six (born 21 August 1954) is a French football coach and former player, who most recently worked as manager of the Guinea national football team until October 2021. A gifted but inconsistent winger, Six enjoyed a nomadic career, playing ...

was given the position. On 30 October 2019, he was appointed as the assistant coach of the

, serving as deputy to James Kwesi Appiah. In early January 2020, his appointment as assistant coach of the

was terminated. This happened as a result of the Ghana Football Association's decision to dissolve the technical crews of the senior teams. However, he was appointed as the head coach of Ghana on 15 January 2020. David Duncan was appointed as his assistant. Ahead of

(AFCON) qualifiers against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe (; pt, São Tomé e Príncipe (); English: " Saint Thomas and Prince"), officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe ( pt, República Democrática de São Tomé e Príncipe), is a Portuguese-speaking i ...

, he choose to summon 32 locally based players for an intensive training regimen. He revealed that the global COVID-19 pandemic necessitated his decision to name 32 home-based players for the AFCON qualifiers because some of the players invited for the previous matches had tested positive after returning to their clubs. On 13 September 2021, the Ghana Football Association announced that Akonnor along with his two assistants, David Duncan and Patrick Greveraars had been sacked after their contracts had been terminated, following an unconvincing win against

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

and defeat to

in a World Cup qualifying match.

Personal life

His son

Charles Jesaja Herrmann Charles-Jesaja Herrmann (born 8 February 2000) is a German professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Waldhof Mannheim. Career In 2021, Herrmann moved to Belgian side Kortrijk from VfL Wolfsburg in the German Bundesliga, where he ...

is also a footballer who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

; he came through the youth system at VfL Wolfsburg.

Honours

Player

Ghana *

African Youth Championship The U-20 Africa Cup of Nations also called TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsoring reason (previously known as the African Youth Championship or the African U-20 Championship) is the main international youth football competition ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, third place:

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

* FIFA U-20 World Cup runner up:

Manager

Dreams *

Zone III: 2015 Asante Kotoko * GFA Normalization Committee Special Competition:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Individual *

Coach of the Month: March 2018 *

Ghana Football Awards Ghana Football Awards is an annual award scheme organized to recognize the best Ghanaian players playing in and outside of the country and key stakeholders who contribute significantly to the game. Several category of awards are given to the most o ...

Manager of the Year: 2019 * AFCON Team of the Tournament & CAF African 11 Team of the Year: 1998

References

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Akonnor, Charles 1974 births Living people Ghanaian footballers Ghanaian expatriate footballers Ghana under-20 international footballers Ghana international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players VfL Wolfsburg players SC Fortuna Köln players SpVgg Unterhaching players AC Horsens players Alki Larnaca FC players Okwawu United players Ashanti Gold SC players Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics 1994 African Cup of Nations players 1996 African Cup of Nations players 1998 African Cup of Nations players 2000 African Cup of Nations players Ghanaian football managers Association football midfielders Expatriate footballers in Denmark Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Accra Hearts of Oak S.C. managers Ashanti Gold S.C. managers Asante Kotoko S.C. managers Ghana national football team managers Olympic footballers of Ghana Association football coaches Ghana Premier League managers Dreams F.C. (Ghana) managers Sekondi Eleven Wise F.C. managers