Asante Kotoko defender, Emmanuel Agyemang Badu has revealed how he swerved two Ghana Premier League clubs to sign for Asante Kotoko.
According to the former Phar Rangers guardsman, both AshantiGold and Medeama came close securing his services before he joined his dream club.
Badu has been impressed since signing for the Reds from the Division One League side.
Watch the VIDEO below about the issues surrounding Badu’s move to Kotoko
Guinean forward Naby Laye Keita has revealed his close friends since he joined Asante Kotoko in 2018.
Keita, who joined the Reds as a free-agent disclosed that he has become friends with captain Felix Annan, defender Augustine Sefah in the team when he was asked about his favourite teammates who has been assisting him to learn the Twi language since.
He said: “I have a good relationship with all the players but Felix [Annan], Augustine Sefah and Emmanuel Gyamfi are my closed ones,” he said in an interview with Kotoko Express.
“With Augustine Sefah, he makes me happy even when I am angry, if I see him then I am happy, Felix too, when I first came to Ghana, he did something for me which I will never forget, he is a good guy and I can’t forget that. And Gyamfi too, we laugh at him all the time, he’s a funny guy”
The former Horoya AC forward further talked about the Ghanaian food he likes best revealing that Fufu with light soup is his favourite Ghanaian dish and revealed who introduced him to that food.
Naby Keita (M) with Felix Annan (L) and Wahab Adams (R)
“My favourite Ghanaian food is fufu with light soup, I knew fufu even before coming to Ghana. We have the same fufu in Guinea but it totally different from the one we have here in Ghana”
“Before I came to Ghana, I had heard that in this country you have nice foods because I have one of my brothers here who has been living in Accra for the past 5 years, we used to talk a lot about Ghana and their foods and even before I came to Kotoko he had told me a lot about the club.”
By Mykel Alonso
FIFA have confirmed a major rule change in order to cope for the potential fixture congestion when football returns after the coronavirus pandemic.
With several leagues across the world taking action from Belgium, France and the Netherlands ending their campaigns, to the Bundesliga and Serie A preparing for potentially finishing the season, FIFA and the International Football Association Board (IFAB) have taken swift action.
Each team will have three opportunities to make five substitutions, excluding half-time, in an amendment which comes into play immediately for competitions which start and finish before the end of 2020.
However, the respective leagues around the world will have the final say on whether or not the new rules will be adopted.
A FIFA statement said: “The decision on whether to apply this temporary amendment will remain at the discretion of each individual competition organiser, while The IFAB and FIFA will determine at a later stage whether this temporary amendment would need to be extended further (e.g. for competitions due to be completed in 2021).”
If both teams make a substitution at the same time, this will count as one of three opportunities for both sides, while in the event of extra-time, unused changes will be carried over.
Meanwhile, FIFA announced the controversial video assistant referee system that came into force in the Premier League this season could be ditched ‘at the discretion of each individual competition organiser.’
“However, where VAR is used, all aspects of the laws of the game and, by extension, the VAR protocol will remain.”
SOURCE:KickOff.com
Ghana Premier League side, AshantiGold have constituted a seven-member Board of Directors, according to Kumasi-based Oyerepa FM.
Majority shareholder Dr Kwaku Frimpong will chair the new board with Nana Abankoro Acheampong (Achiken) as vice.
Dr Frimpong’s son Emmanuel – who was recently appointed Chief Executive Officer – will be on the board.
Others include Yaw Fosu, Yaw Asabere, Nana Akwasi Fosu and a representative from the mining firm AngloGold Ashanti.
Oyerepa FM further noted that two more people will be added to make 9.
Image via sportsworldghana
Ghana forward, Kevin-Prince Boateng says he is hoping to return to the Black Stars since he still has so much to offer under the tutelage of coach CK Akonnor.
Boateng, 33, who is currently on loan at Turkish side Besiktas from AC Fiorentina , has been out of the national team since 2014 after he was sacked from the Black Stars camp by coach Kwasi Appiah during the Mundial in Brazil.
He, together with Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari, were reported to have disrespected Kwesi Appiah.
Since then Ghanaians have been divided as to whether he should be invited to the team again although he had not shown interest.
Speaking to his brother, Jerome Boateng in an Instagram live chat, Kevin said he was unhappy the way his stint with the national team ended and hinted he could return to the team before retiring.
“With the national team, I didn’t like the way it ended because they gave me so much. But you never know, maybe I can go back and play one more time again.” said the former Tottenham and Barcelona forward.
Following the steps of their regional rivals Ashantigold as the first Ghanaian club to implement a pay cut policy for both players and technical team, Asante Kotoko Sporting Club have reached an agreement with the players and technical staff over the implementation of 30% salary reduction.
The Porcupine Warriors, after weeks of engagements with the playing body and the technical staff, have agreed to accept 30% pay cut in a bid to ease financial burden on the club. The decision is being taken due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic which has brought global economy to its historic lowest level.
In a meeting at the club’s secretariat to finalize the agreement, the playing body was represented by five (5) senior players; goalkeeper and skipper Felix Annan, deputy skipper Emmanuel Gyamfi, centre backs Emmanuel Agyemang Badu and Wahab Adams and right back Augustine Sefa.
Former player and team manager Henry Ohene Brenya appeared for the technical bench but head coach Maxwell Konadu was not part of the final meeting held last Wednesday.
On the side the administration and Management of the club, General Manager and Personal Assistance to the Executive Chairman of the club, Nana Gyambibi Coker was in attendance as well as CEO George Amoako.
There were series of the meetings to deliberate on the issue, and the final meeting took place last Wednesday at the club’s secretariat where the agreement was reached. Our sources reliably reveal, that the resolutions from the meeting have been handed to the top brass of the club for final approval before the club will come out with official announcement.
Ashantigold Sporting Club became the first Ghanaian club to implement the pay cut policy, after reaching agreement with the playing body and technical staff to accept a 20% pay cut.
By Stephen Tetteh
PHOTO: Kotoko Express App
Emmanuel Agyemang Badu has revealed that his mother cried after informing her about Asante Kotoko move.
The utility defender joined the Porcupine Warriors in 2018 from Division-One side, Phar Rangers having made his name in the lower tier league.
Agyemang Badu says – who has been a Kotoko fan since his childhood stage – is delighted to have achieved his dream of wearing the red jersey.
“My mum cried over the phone when I called to tell her that I have signed for Kotoko. She was a hawker in Accra in my boyhood days. Once I was hawking with her and we came across a newsstand. We saw the Kotoko Express with Prince Anokye’s picture boldly displayed on the front page,” he told Kotoko Express App.
“My family stayed close with Prince Anokye’s family in Bohyen and we were family friends. My mum was happy seeing the picture and the level that Prince Anokye had gotten to. I saw the happiness in her eyes and I promised her I will also play for Kotoko and get my picture displayed in the paper.”
Agyemang Badu’s got his Kotoko career off to a good start and was very integral when the squad drew 1-1 with Simba FC in a ceremonial game at Dar es Salaam in the early weeks after his arrival.
“I went to the dining hall the day after the game and saw my picture boldly displayed in the national newspaper of Tanzania. I brought the paper to my mum when we returned. And she cried again.”
Image via LAFC Twitter page
Ghanaian midfielder Latif Atta Blessing has returned to training at Major League Soccer side Los Angeles FC after the compulsory break due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blessing was part of sixteen LAFC players that showed up at training on Thursday, and was engaged in individual practice.
The Major League Soccer has been on hold since March due to the pandemic, but it is likely soccer will return soon as clubs return to training
Watch the drills below
Image via sportsworldghana
Chief Executive Officer of DataBank, Kojo Addae-Mensah wants the club’s next chairman be a person with much knowledge in sports management than being a ‘philanthropist’.
The Ghanaian giants have recently been managed by businessmen who have little knowledge of the game per their background. But has not propelled the team to the height they envisage for.
The closet Kotoko came achieving laurels on and off the pitch with such appointments was under the Herbert Mensah regime between 1999 and 2002.
”The running of the club should be given to people with sports background or profession,” Addae-Mensah, a former Asante Kotoko Express columnist, told Accra-based Happy FM.
”If not the club will be going in circles. The structure must be changed from the CEO, chairman, bankroller etc.
”It’s time we move on from giving the job to philanthropists and hand over the work to professionals.
”Times have changed now. If Kotoko had continued with the partnership with Sunderland we could have gone somewhere.”
Image via Ghanaweb
Black Stars head coach, Charles Kwablan Akonnor is calling for a common platform for all national team coaches in order to share ideas to develop a specific system of play at all levels.
Akonnor is yet to play any official game since he was named as the head coach of the senior national team in February 2020.
According to him, that common set-up is to be followed by all national team coaches.
In an interview with the Ghana FA media team, Akonnor said:
“We need to understand that we must have a set-up which each and every [national] team will follow from top to bottom. So if you’re playing for instance 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1, [system that] the Meteors used during the 2019 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, the journey [of players] to the top will not be long. We must have that understanding because that is what they do out there.
“[National team] coaches must have a relationship so that we can share ideas. We should be able to share ideas because I don’t know it all, they also don’t k now it all. We need to help each other. And that is a barrier in-between the coaches, it’s a fact.
“I am open. I want a situation where the national set-up will have that bond in terms of tactical play. Before I got into the national team, I was in the Under-20. Otto Pfister saw me in an international match. The following week he called me into the Black Stars because there were similarities in the style of play and what he needs and it was easier.”
Akonnor also shared his thought on Black Stars identity.
“I have a tape of the 1978 squad [and observed] how they played. We will modify it a little bit – that [style] has been my idea.
“It is not about what I want, it’s about the demands of the people and I know the style of play that our people are interested in – we entertain the crowd, play a very constructive football but we have to be efficient at the end of the day because that is what matters most. You play, entertain and you don’t win and you will see what Ghanaians will tell you.
“Ghanaians are passionate about the game. I know what they want and how I can manage to get them what they want is the problem my technical team [has to solve]. And I think we will do this in a very positive way,” Akonnor stated.