Charles Kwabla Akonnor (born 12 March 1974) is a Ghanaian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former player who most recently managed the Ghana national team. A former

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

, he spent most of his club career in Germany. He made 51 appearances for the Ghana national team scoring 13 goals. He started his career in Ghana with a colts team Young Hearts, before joining

Okwawu United Okwawu United is a Ghanaian professional Football team, football club based in Nkawkaw, Eastern Region (Ghana), Eastern Region. They are competing in the Access Bank Ghana Plc, Access Bank Division One League, Ghana, Division One League. Their hom ...

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

Samuel Kuffour Samuel Osei 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 over a de ...

and joined then 2. Bundesliga side

Fortuna Köln Fortuna (, 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 least the Re ...

, 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 and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

side

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

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 Spielvereinigung Unterhaching () is a German sports club in Unterhaching, a semi-rural municipality on the southern outskirts of the Bavarian capital Munich. The club is widely known for playing in the first-division association football league ...

. 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 f ...

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 a ...

. 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, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

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 Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

and

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, 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 Nungua is a town in Krowor Municipal District in the Greater Accra Region of southeastern Ghana near the coast. Nungua is the eighteenth most populous settlement in Ghana, in terms of population, with a population of 84,119 people. Politic ...

, a suburb of

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) 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, , had a population of ...

but hails from Ningo Prampram in the

Greater Accra Region The Greater Accra Region has the smallest area of Ghana's Regions of Ghana, 16 administrative regions, occupying a total land surface of 3,245 square kilometres. This is 1.4 per cent of the total land area of Ghana. It is the List of Ghanaian re ...

of Ghana making him a

Ga-Adangbe The Ga-Dangbe, Ga-Dangme, Ga-Adangme or Ga-Adangbe are an ethnic group in Ghana, Togo and Benin. The Ga or Gan and Dangbe or Dangme people are grouped as part of the Ga–Dangme languages, Ga–Dangme Ethnolinguistics, ethnolinguistic group. The ...

. 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 Tema is a city on the Bight of Benin and Atlantic coast of Ghana. It is located east of the capital city; Accra, in the region of Greater Accra, and is the capital of the Tema Metropolitan District. As of 2013, Tema is the eleventh most p ...

in 1985. He was scouted by former

Ghana Premier League The Ghana Premier League is the top professional association football league in Ghana organized by the Ghana Football Association and formed in 1958 to replace a previous league incarnation, the Gold Coast Club Competition which ran from 1933 ...

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

. 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, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

. 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 The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

victory against

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher Sport-Club Mühlburg-Phönix e. V., better known as Karlsruher SC, is a Football in Germany, German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of Germa ...

. On 19 September 1998, he scored his debut league goal in a 4–2 loss to

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

. 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

, a return to the 2. Bundesliga. He made his debut for the club on 31 January in their 3–1 victory over Greuther Fürth. On 5 April 2004, he scored his debut goal, by scoring Unterhaching's only goal in a 3–1 loss to

Rot-Weiß Oberhausen Rot-Weiß Oberhausen is a German association football club in Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was formed as ''Oberhausener SV'' in December 1904 out of the merger of ''Emschertaler SV'' (1902) and the football enthusiasts of ''Oberh ...

. 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

Erzgebirge Aue Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. Liga in 2008–09, ...

, 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 to play with

AC Horsens Alliance Club Horsens (), commonly referred to as AC Horsens () or simply Horsens, is a Danish professional football club based in Horsens, Central Denmark Region. Founded in 1994, as a superstructure on Horsens fS (founded 1915), Stensballe ...

, playing an important part in the team's consolidation in the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

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

Alki Larnaca Alki Larnaca (, ''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 2014 due to financial issues. The club's colours were blue and red. They reached th ...

. In Summer 2008 left Cyprus and moved to Germany 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 The 1993 African Youth Championship was a football tournament hosted on the island of Mauritius, off the east coast of Africa. The Championship was won by Ghana, who defeated Cameroon in the final, with both teams thus qualifying for the 1993 FIFA ...

and qualified for the World Youth Championship. The team went on and placed second at the

, losing to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

by 2–1 in the final after Emmanuel Duah 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 against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

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, Emmanuel Duah 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 car racing, touring cars and ''Group B'' for Grand tourer, GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (motorspor ...

, 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, also prevalent in other Romance countries. People Notable people known as Ronaldo include: Association footballe ...

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 Legis ...

. For the senior team Akonnor would go on and make 51 international caps and later was named

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

of the Black Stars following

Abedi Pele Abedi Ayew ( ; born 5 November 1964), known professionally as Abedi Pele, is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder and served as captain of the Ghana national team. He is regarded as one of the grea ...

's retirement. However, he would never be recalled again after applying for (and receiving) German citizenship.

Coaching career

Sekondi Wise Fighters

On 19 February 2009, Akunnor signed a contract as head coach for Sekondi Wise Fighters 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 Sekondi Wise Fighters. 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 club Hearts of Oak succeeding

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

. 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 holds home games at the Cape Coast Sports ...

, Wa All Stars and Berekum Chelsea.

Dreams

In 2014, Akonnor was appointed as the head coach of then Ghana Division One League side

Dreams A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5–20 minutes, althou ...

. 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 The Ghana Football Association (GFA) is the sports governing body, governing body of association football in Ghana, based in the capital city, Accra. Founded in 1957 to replace the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast Football Association whi ...

's Disciplinary Committee to the Ghana Division One League 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, 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 t ...

, 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

. Within the season, he was adjudged the

GPL The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first c ...

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 sports, professional association football, football club founded on 31 August 1935 and based in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Nicknamed the ''African crested ...

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 under-23 football team, Ghana national U-23 team. He is a former coach Ghana Premier League teams; coaching st ...

. 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.

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 manager and former player, who most recently worked as manager of the Guinea national football team until October 2021. A gifted but inconsistent winger, Six had a rather nomadic career, pl ...

was given the position. On 30 October 2019, he was appointed as the assistant coach of the Ghana national team, serving as deputy to

James Kwesi Appiah James Kwesi Appiah (born 30 June 1960), also known as Akwasi Appiah, is a Ghanaian football coach and former player who played as a left back who is the head coach of Sudan national football team. Early life and education Appiah was born on 30 ...

. In early January 2020, his appointment as assistant coach of the Ghana national team was terminated. This happened as a result of the

'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 Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main isla ...

, 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

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, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and defeat to

in a World Cup qualifying match.

Personal life

His son Charles Jesaja Herrmann 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) ** Smal ...

; he came through the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

at VfL Wolfsburg.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Ghana *

African Youth Championship The U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, known for short as the U-20 AFCON and for sponsorship purposes as TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, previously known as the African Youth Championship and the African U-20 Championship, is the biennial int ...

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

, third place:

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

runner up:

Manager

Dreams * Ghana Division One League Zone III: 2015 Asante Kotoko * GFA Normalization Committee Special Competition:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Individual *

Coach of the Month: March 2018 * Ghana Football Awards 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 men's footballers Ghanaian expatriate men's footballers Ghana men's under-20 international footballers Ghana men's international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Danish Superliga players VfL Wolfsburg players SC Fortuna Köln players SpVgg Unterhaching players AC Horsens players Alki Larnaca FC players Okwawu United S.C. players Ashanti Gold S.C. players Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's 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 Men's association football midfielders Expatriate men's 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 for Ghana Association football coaches Ghana Premier League managers Dreams F.C. managers Sekondi Eleven Wise F.C. managers