Charles Kwabla Akonnor born March 12,1974 in Nungua, a suburb of Accra is a former Ghanaian international footballer who is the current manager of the Ghana national team. He played as a versatile midfielder, mostly in Germany.
The Executive Council of Ghana Football Association (GFA) terminated his appointment as Black Stars Head coach, today, September 13 after receipt of the Technical report from him and the report from the Black Stars Management Committee following Ghana’s Group G World Cup qualifying matches against Ethiopia and South Africa.
Akonnor 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. 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.
He started his football career in Ghana with a colts team Young Hearts, before joining Okwawu United and later Obuasi Goldfields. In 1992, Akonnor moved to Germany with Samuel Kuffour and joined then 2 Bundesliga side Fortuna Köln, where he would spend six seasons and appear in over 150 matches and score over 25 goals before securing a move to Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg where he made his name.
At Wolfsbrug, 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 capped for Ghana at the U20, U23 and the senior team. At the youth level, he starred Ghana, and helped them third place during the 1991 African Youth Championship and second place during the 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship.
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 and in four Africa Cup of Nations in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 serving as captain in 2000. In 1998, he was also named in the CAF XI of the year and AFCON Team of the Tournament.
In 2005, CK Akonnor moved to Denmark to play with AC Horsens, playing an important part in the team’s consolidation in the Danish Superliga, where they had just arrived in the previous season. He played one final season in Cyprus’ top flight, with Alki Larnaca FC.
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.
On February 19, 2009, Akonnor signed a contract as head coach for Sekondi Wise Fighters where he worked with his former national teammate Nii Lamptey 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.
Charles Akonnor was on March 19, 2012, named as head coach of the Glo Premier League club Hearts of Oak succeeding Nebojša Vučićević. 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, Wa All Stars and Berekum Chelsea.
However, in 2014, Akonnor was appointed as the head coach of then Ghana Division One League 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 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.
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, 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 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.
On October 1, 2018, he was appointed as the head coach of Asante Kotoko replacing Paa Kwesi Fabin. 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. In July 2019, he was sacked by Asante Kotoko and replaced by Kjetil Zachariassen.
In September 2019, he was shortlisted for the head coach of the Guinea national team role but French national Didier Six was given the position. On October 30, 2019, he was appointed as the assistant coach of the Ghana national team, serving as deputy to James Kwesi Appiah.
In early January 2020, his appointment as assistant coach of the Ghana national team 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 while David Duncan was appointed as his assistant.
Ahead of Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers against South Africa and São Tomé and Príncipe, he choose to summon 32 locally based players for an intensive training regimen. He disclosed 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.
His son Charles Jesaja Herrmann is also a footballer who plays as a forward; he came through the youth system at VfL Wolfsburg.
He was sacked today, Monday, September 13, 2021 as Black Stars Coach.
