Asante Kotoko former midfielder Stephen Oduro is ever grateful to Asante Kotoko past and present management, the club and its top officials for their deep respect and love for him as a former player, as he reveals details of his relationship with the club under the previous and current management.
In an exclusive interview with ghanasportspage.com, the club’s revered icon was asked why he seems distant from the club’s management, and whether would love to be part of the club’s current management in support of the club, and the former RTU midfielder sounded much positive, revealing deeper secrets between himself and the club which is not known to the public.
In his submission, Oduro, who left the club at the end of the 2016/2017 football season since joining the club in the year 2000, retired from football at the age of 33 and is one of the most revered former players of the club. Oduro revealed that Asante Kotoko offered him a job to be a Player Welfare Officer for the club and remain in the club, but he later had to decline to the offer to afford him the opportunity to join his family in America, who he had been distanced from due to playing in Ghana.
“Somewhere at the start of the 2017/18 season when registration was about starting, that was the time Dr Kwame Kyei had just come to take over the club [as Board Chairman], at that time I was still part of the team. Dr Kwame Kyei suggested he wanted me to be a Player Welfare Officer along playing till I decide otherwise, which I accepted”, Oduro narrated, speaking exclusively to ghanasportspage.com.
He continued, “I accepted, even the plan to play a testimonial match for me came up but due to my own schedules, it couldn’t come on. I personally pleaded with them that I had played for long and my wife and the children had been living abroad for long and at times it even takes two years without seeing them, so I wanted to seize the opportunity to go and visit them. I didn’t even plan on not returning but upon my arrival [here in America] then they [the family] said they won’t allow me to go back [to Ghana] again”, he revealed.
Oduro expressed gratitude to the then management of Asante Kotoko for an honour done him, for even continuing to pay him for one whole year while he was still in America.
“I will thank the officials of [Asante] Kotoko that I came to stay abroad and at that time when I was abroad Dr Kwame Kyei was still paying me. He kept asking when I was coming back to help him and the club, so I went back [to Ghana] to spend about three months then later told them I had to return [to the States] to do something, and that was the time I couldn’t go back again. So it lasted for about after one year before they stopped paying me; even with that it took me to tell them that looking at things I’m not sure I can return and that they should replace me.
“Even at that time they kept in touch with me, calling me to come so they give me a job within the club but I rather told them I want to spend some time with the family, then do my coaching course then I later return to probably start from the [technical] bench so I can also help them team with what is left in me”, Oduro added.
He further revealed his current relation =ship with the current Nana Yaw Amponsah led administration of Asante Kotoko, which looks very positive for the growth of the club.
“Even Nana Yaw Amponsah, when he came, they call me and we talk often, and even Nana Yaw himself I knew him in Kumasi when he came to take over Cornerstones, my brother was at Cornerstones then so I had time with him and all of them will be happy that I join the team [Kotoko] again, but, due to life here in abroad and other things, you need to be well prepared before you go back home. So I have decided to finish with my coaching course and other things then I can now go back home to support the club with my little knowledge”, he narrated.
Stephen Oduro has been living in the United States with his family since leaving Asante Kotoko in 2017.
