Joseph ''Joe'' Addo (born 21 September 1971 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

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

ian

Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

defender and one-time captain of the Ghana national team.

Club career

Addo went to the United States to attend college and play

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

where he was a 1992 First Team All American. On the club level, Addo played for

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

in Italy,

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB Stu ...

and

FSV Frankfurt Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V., commonly known as simply FSV Frankfurt, is a German association football club based in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main, Hesse and founded in 1899. FSV Frankfurt also fielded a rather successfu ...

in Germany,

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top flight ...

in the Netherlands,

Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Reste ...

in Portugal,

Ethnikos Piraeus Ethnikos Piraeus (Greek: Εθνικός Πειραιώς) is a Greek multisport club based in Piraeus. It was founded in 1923. The full name of the club is Ethnikos Omilos Filathlon Pireos/Phalirou or Ethnikos OFPF (Greek: Εθνικός Όμιλ ...

in Greece,

Tampa Bay Mutiny Tampa Bay Mutiny was a professional soccer team based in Tampa, Florida. They were a charter member of Major League Soccer (MLS) and played from 1996 to 2001. They played their home games at Tampa Stadium and then at Raymond James Stadium. The ...

, MetroStars in the United States and

Kitchee Kitchee Sports Club (; ; ) is a Hong Kong professional Association football, football club based in Kowloon. It was founded in 1931 and currently competes in the Hong Kong Premier League. The club has won championships in Hong Kong 11 times, in ...

in Hong Kong. Joseph Addo features in the book ''The Miracle of Castel di Sangro'' by

Joe McGinniss Joseph Ralph McGinniss Sr. (December 9, 1942 – March 10, 2014) was an American non-fiction writer and novelist. The author of twelve books, he first came to prominence with the best-selling ''The Selling of the President 1968'' which describe ...

where it seems a transfer for Joseph from

A.S.D. Castel di Sangro Calcio Castel di Sangro Cep is an Italian association football club from Castel di Sangro in the Province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo. They currently play in Eccellenza Molise. Their moment of greatness came in 1996, when they were promoted to Serie B, a no ...

had been agreed, only for the Castel di Sangro's owners to pull out. Joe McGinniss' account asserts that he, the club owners and members of the Castel di Sangro playing staff were unhappy about this, and that the collapse of the transfer was entirely because coach

Osvaldo Jaconi Osvaldo may refer to the following people: Given name *Osvaldo Alonso, Cuban football player *Osvaldo Ardiles (born 1952), an Argentine football player and coach *Osvaldo Bagnoli, an Italian football coach *Osvaldo Brandão, a Brazilian football c ...

did not want Addo in his squad.

International career

Addo played for 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, ...

. For the senior team, he appeared 44 times, scoring two goals.

Personal life

Joe is married to Cynthia Addo and has two children.

References

2. ''The Miracle of Castel di Sangro'' by Joe McGinniss published by Sphere in 1999, copyright retained by author

External links

Addo at GhanaWeb.com
1971 births Living people Ghanaian men's footballers Ghana men's international footballers VfB Stuttgart players VfB Stuttgart II players FSV Frankfurt players Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. players Tampa Bay Mutiny players New York Red Bulls players Kitchee SC players C.F. Os Belenenses players Olympic footballers for Ghana Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers from Accra Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Hong Kong First Division League players Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong George Mason University alumni George Mason Patriots men's soccer players Accra Hearts of Oak S.C. players 1996 African Cup of Nations players Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Major League Soccer players Men's association football central defenders All-American college men's soccer players {{Ghana-footy-defender-stub