Charles Kwablah Akonnor has said that he enjoyed his time as Asante Kotoko coach more than he did as coach of the Black Stars.
After coaching Hearts of Oak, Dreams FC, and AshantiGold, the former Ghana international joined Asante Kotoko in 2018.
He spent a year with the Porcupine Warriors, where he won the NC Special Competition and reached the Caf Confederation group stage (also known as the money zone) in 2019.
Akonnor’s excellent work at Kotoko earned him a job with the Black Stars in early 2020, but he was fired in September 2021 after only 10 games in charge. Akonnor lost four matches, won four and drew two.
He has since been unemployed.
In an interview with Akoma FM, Akonnor stated that coaching Kotoko has been the pinnacle of his career.
“Of course, I enjoyed my coaching moments at Kotoko more than the Black Stars. My stint with Kotoko has been the highest point in my coaching career,” Akonnor boldly claimed.
“At Kotoko, even though there was not a proper season because of the Anas exposé, we had a solid preseason and that really helped us. We went to Takoradi and Mampong, all this helped us coupled with the support from management.
“Let me say that the supporters were unbelievable during our African campaign. I was shocked when I saw a packed stadium during our first game, that made me love my job more and I felt at home. I had total support from the management and that helped us to qualify for the group stage where we also did well.”
“I enjoyed every moment I at Kotoko more than any job I have ever done as a coach,” he added.
Akonnor admitted that his one-year stint with the Black Stars was difficult. He qualified the team for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations tournament, but was sacked because of Black Stars’ poor start to 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
“Black Stars at my time was struggling, the whole team was not stable, sometimes when making call up you don’t even know how many players to call,” Akonnor said.
“At Black Stars, it was a different story and one day I will tell it.”
Akonnor’s replacement, Milovan Rajevac, led Ghana into the World Cup playoffs before being fired after the dismal 2021 Africa Cup of Nations campaign.
Otto Addo was brought in as a stopgap coach and qualified the team for the World Cup in Qatar in March at the expense of Nigeria.
