From Heroes to Zeros.....Life after sports can be rough- CK Akunnor

Former Black Stars captain CK Akunnor has confirmed to The Finder Sports that life has been rough for some of his colleagues and former team mates a few years after they all retired from the national team and football in general.

For a sport that has been financially rewarding in the last decade or so, it is almost unthinkable to believe that some of Ghana’s illustrious sportsmen are living a life of penury and seem to have thrown away the fortune they amassed a few years ago.

But that is the ugly and sad truth, according to the former Black Stars captain.

“It’s never the same when you retire from the game and it can be difficult. The harsh reality of your account not being credited week-in and week-out dawns on you and if you have not planned for your retirement it can be rough,” he said.

Akunnor, who is currently the assistant coach of the National U-20 team, the Black Satellites, added that his generation of footballers which includes such house hold names like Yaw Preko, Kwame Ayew, Sammy Kuffuour and Augustine Arhinful, have been lucky to be living a decent life after football.

“I think the older generation before mine was unlucky because they did not have the opportunity to play in Europe and make some money from the game; but such is life,” Akunnor stressed.

According to him, the financial rise and fall of sportsmen particularly African sportsmen is because of their lack of trust in the people around them and the lack of a strong team to manage the fame and fortune of these sportsmen and sports women.

“Forced retirement through injury can be disorganising but largely sportsmen fail to invest because they don’t trust their monies with those around them and so end up not investing at all,” Akunnor stated.

Asked whether struggling ex-sportsmen should be the responsibility of government, Akunnor believes government should not be responsible for anyone who had mismanaged his or her life.

“Maybe, the Jones Attuquayefios and CK Gyamfis should be taken care of by the state but beyond that no ex-sportsman should be a responsibility of government,” he said.

Speaking to The Finder Sports, Felix Aboagye, the assistant coach of premier league side Liberty Professionals, who also played for the Black Stars confirmed the phenomena of struggling ex-sportsmen but said the sportsmen themselves were to blame for the problem.

“When you are active, the money comes quickly and for some reason you tend to believe that is how it will be till the end of your life but the money goes as quickly as it comes,” he said.

Aboagye believes sportsmen can have a decent retirement if they can tone down on the too many fast cars, flashy girls and avoid unnecessary spending.

“I had the privilege of working with the late Alhaji Sly Tetteh (founder of Liberty Professional) when I was an active footballer and anyone who worked with him will attest to his insistence on investing,” he said.

“At Liberty, Sly always used a part of a player’s transfer fee to buy a parcel of land for that particular footballer. He did it for a lot of players including Essien, Muntari and Gyan because he always believed there was life after football,” Aboagye told The Finder Sports.

In an earlier interview, Ghanaian-born former France international Marcel Desailly, who owns the plush Lizzy Sports Complex in East Legon, he said sportsmen should only invest when they were retired.

The World Cup winner believes investing after retirement is the surest way to monitor one’s investment.

“When you invest while active, people take advantage of you and sometimes dupe you because you are hardly physically present to monitor the project(s); so for me, you have to save the money while active and invest it when you retire,” Desailly added.

The Finder Sports contacts in the football fraternity say that former Black Stars players such as Mohammed Gargo,Ishmael Addo and many others are struggling to make a living.

Former Black Stars midfielder, Emmanuel Duah is also said to be struggling financially while Jacob Nettey, the former captain of Accra Hearts of Oak and ex-Black Stars player was recently appointed coach of Auroras, the youth side of Hearts of Oak apparently to keep him afloat.

These were players who, at the peak of their careers, could afford all of life’s luxuries.

The sources also said that a number of the athletes squandered millions of dollars due to bad decisions, lavish spending and poor financial planning. Many lost their fortunes through some of the biggest financial blunders of all time.

The campaign to end the trend has begun with Ghana’s parliament calling for a fund to cater for retired sportsmen and sportswomen.