Asante Kotoko coach Maxwell Konadu invited GHANASoccernet.com into his plush official residence in Atasomanso, Kumasi to have a lengthy chat over a variety of issues.
Amongst some of the issues discussed are his general upbringing, his football career, his life as a husband and father, his coaching career with a lot of emphasis on events leading to joining Kotoko from All Stars and also the reported link to a coaching role with the Black Stars.
GSN: Thank You very much for inviting us to your beautiful home.
MK: You are welcome.
GSN: Can you please tell us who you are?
MK: Ok, my name is Maxwell Konadu and was born here in Kumasi but grew up in WA in the Upper West Region. I started school there and somewhere along the line started playing football. And throughout my playing career I did all I could to reach the highest point of the game. To the best of my knowledge I did my best to play in the Uefa Cup. That is the furthest I got to before coming back to Ghana to begin my coaching career.
GSN: At what point in time in your life did you realize you were good at football and did you get the support from your family especially during the days where playing any kind of sport is deemed derogatory.
MK: Initially, my mother wasn’t interested in me playing football but as time went on she gradually became interested. But initially it was very very difficult until some family elders had to intervene to convince her of my prospects. So gradually she agreed and I was free to even travel with teams to play football games.
GSN: Do you remember the first team you played for?
MK: Yes, we graduated from the schools and colleges and from there I joined Upper West Heroes before I played for RTU (Real Tamale United), came back to Upper West Heroes before joining Asante Kotoko way back in 1992 before traveling outside.
MK: Yes, that is the team we all grew up with. My whole family, everybody was a Kotoko fan. That very year I think there were about eight, nine teams chasing me. Alhaji Hearts was a very good friend of mine and I even saw him as a father, he called me from Accra and even put it in the Daily Graphic because he knew I was in Kumasi that he needed me urgently for a club in Guinea. So upon Kotoko officials seeing this publication, they prevented me from going because they thought Alhaji Hearts wanted to take me for Hearts of Oak. So there and then, they (Kotoko) prepared a letter and a contract for me to sign and that is how I joined Kotoko. They had previously sent someone to WA to talk to me but I when I got to Kumasi Jones Attuquayfio took me to AshGold (then Goldfields) but Kotoko managed to get me in the end.
GSN: Do you remember your first game for Kotoko and how you fared in that game?
MK: Yes, it was against AshGold, I remember it vividly because I scored the winning goal in a 1-0 win at the Kumasi Sports Stadium. That was the beginning of Maxwell Konadu at Kotoko. I remember AshGold tried setting the offside trap with Yaw Acheampong, Sammy Adjei and Simon Addo in goal and I beat it and I managed to score.
GSN: How did you feel that day, on your debut in a local derby against AshGold and scoring what proved to be the winner in the end?
MK: It boosted my confidence. I had the belief from there that I could do better because the supporters fell in love with me and already I had been a national star and for them I lived up to expectation. I never lasted for even two seasons at Kotoko but I managed to get my name on the score sheet that any Kotoko fan all over the world felt I played for over five or six years because I was always scoring.
GSN: What was your biggest challenge then as a young lad in a big club like Kotoko?
MK: There were big players in Kotoko by then. We had Frimpong Manso, Akwasi Appiah, Emmanuel Ampiah, Mohammed Odoom, Abu Sumaila and the likes. So it wasn’t easy initially but when you have the opportunity you have to just grab it. We had Sam Addy at the time as the coach and coincidentally we all met at the Meteors camp so it was very easy for me to get used to my friends. Most of them were also at the Meteors camp so it made it smooth for me. I enjoyed the support from the fans and the captain Akwasi Appiah was always encouraging me a lot as well as the other players.
GSN: How would you describe your style of play then?
MK: Initially I played very flamboyantly but when I was converted from a midfielder to a striker I had to change my style. When I became a striker it wasn’t proper that while everybody was waiting for me to score or make a pass you can’t just wait on the ball and do whatever you like with it.
GSN: At which point did your coaches decide to convert you from a midfielder to a striker?
MK: I had a powerful right foot and my coach back then was Okoe Aryee, he converted me. What he saw in me I don’t know but all he said was that anytime I get the ball I should turn and shoot and it was working.
GSN: Tell us about your first national team call up.
MK: I started going to national team camp from WA Upper Heroes, through RTU but I never got the chance to play until I got to Kotoko. You know Kotoko was a big club and any player of Kotoko was seen at the time as matured and confident enough for international football. Kotoko brought me into the limelight but of course some work had already been done elsewhere.
GSN: Who are some of the players you met on your first day at the national team camp?
MK: That was the first time Anthony Baffoe had surfaced and everybody was talking about the Ghanaian who was born in Germany and was coming to play for Ghana. So I was as anxious as everyone to meet him and I was very happy to. Anthony Yeboah was there, Abedi Pele was there and all the big guys including Prince Polly. They were the big players and we were the small ones so we used to carry their boots and bags just to serve the senior players and through that we learnt a lot from them. I was sleeping with Abubakari Damba, he was my captain at RTU and I served him for sometime before we took over.
GSN: Who served you when you guys took over?
MK: The trend was changing by then. Today for instance, when the national team is traveling nobody helps a senior player, you have to carry your own load. It is not like back then when Anthony Yeboah came from Germany and you have to carry his bags to the hotel before his brothers came for him. But it is totally different now, it is a generational change.
GSN: Do you think then that this change is good because you said through serving the senior players you learnt a lot.
MK: It depends, when you see somebody as your idol, you would want to do everything for him or to impress him, even playing like him. Anthony Yeboah and Abedi Pele were very good strikers and I saw them as my idols. I loved Abedi Pele’s skill but I also admired the way Yeboah was scoring goals. But I was a bit closer to Abedi because of my personal relationship with Kwame Ayew so I was more inclined to play like him. But not knowing I had my own style and so when I discovered it I decided to stick with it and polish it.
GSN: So which player was your role model then?
MK: No doubt it was Abedi Pele. I just loved him and his brother was my best friend. He is aware. I remember someday the Black Stars were playing in Kumasi and Kwame Ayew and I went to the team hotel and met him one-on-one. He spoke to us and Kwame Ayew introduced me as his best friend and he gave us money and I was very very excited seeing him for the first time. It motivated me and I was encouraged without him telling me anything about football but I just said one day I would like to be like him.
GSN: Let's now talk about your transition from the local game to your adventures abroad, where did you go after leaving Kotoko?
MK: I don’t want to even talk about Qatar, that is where I started after leaving Kotoko. I played for Al Arabi for two seasons and during this period I was the top scorer of the league. I then left to pursue a career in Europe where I joined a German third division club. That is where I met Joe Addo and Sammy Kuffour but it was difficult for me in Germany so I had to move elsewhere. That is how come I moved to Portugal because things weren’t going well for me in Germany and it was there I told myself this time around I had to make it. I did my best there and was quite successful.
MK: It is very very difficult. There you have to do everything on your own. You have to learn the language first, make good friends and play better than them. Because when you play like them they preferred to use one of their own so you had to excel to brighten your chances of getting picked always. And to do that you need to be mentally tough, you can count the number of players who go out there and can’t make it because it is not easy, you need to play better than them.
GSN: How did your family take the news with you leaving the country to uncharted territory to continue with your football?
MK: It was just like this; you come and see almost half of my family with me. Some didn’t even believe it was me because the small boy was causing a lot of waves in the country. It was wonderful and is a testament of the wonderful things God can do because I was an up and coming player and where he took me in football is just unbelievable.
End of Part One of the lengthy interview with Asante Kotoko coach Maxwell Konadu.
He talks about hanging his boots after his playing career, life after active football, how he met his wife, his lowest and highest moments of his career and the future with specific reference to the link with the Black Stars coaching role.
Join us for Part Two where the video edition will be ready for viewing.