Anthony Annan

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Anthony Annan
Anthony Annan with Schalke 04 in 2011
Annan in 2011
Personal information
Full name Anthony Gildas Kofi Annan
Date of birth (1986-07-21) 21 July 1986 (age 37)
Place of birth Accra, Ghana
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
1998–2000 Super Rainbow Stars
2000–2002 Venomous Vipers
2002 S.C. Adelaide[source?]
2002–2003 Sekondi Wise Fighters
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2003–2005 Sekondi Hasaacas 121 (10)
2005–2007 Hearts of Oak 57 (4)
2007–2008 Start 11 (0)
2008 → Stabæk (loan) 12 (0)
2008–2011 Rosenborg 51 (2)
2011–2014 Schalke 04 12 (4)
2011–2012 → Vitesse (loan) 24 (2)
2012–2013 → Osasuna (loan) 6 (0)
2013–2014 HJK 7 (0)
2015 1860 Munich 3 (0)
2015 Stabæk 7 (0)
2016–2018 HJK 72 (3)
2018–2019 Beitar Jerusalem 4 (0)
2019–2022 Inter Turku 42 (1)
2022 TPS 23 (0)
Total 452 (27)
National team‡
2007–2013 Ghana[1] 67 (2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23 October 2022
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 20 January 2013

Anthony Gildas Kofi Annan (born 21 July 1986[1]) is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. The midfielder was versatile and had his strengths primarily in defense. He was characterized by pundits as a hard-working midfielder who could mark opponents very well and block any shots, he was commonly considered as one of the greatest Ghanaian defensive midfielders of all time.

Club career[change | change source]

Annan played for Sekondi Hasaacas until 2005 and then moved to league rivals Hearts of Oak SC, Annan was regarded as the best young midfielder in Ghana. He combined midfield artistry with some goal scoring skills, and endeared himself to many football fans in Ghana. In January 2007 he was signed by the Norwegian first division club Start Kristiansand and made eleven appearances for the club in his first season. At the end of the season, the club finished second to last in the table and was relegated to the Adeccoligaen. Annan joined the Stabæk Fotball club for the 2008 season, with whom he immediately became Norwegian champions. He then moved to Norwegian record champions Rosenborg Trondheim for three seasons; the transfer fee for him was around 1.2 million euros. At Rosenborg BK, Annan developed into a top performer for the team that won the title twice. 

In January 2011, Annan moved to the Bundesliga for FC Schalke 04, with whom he signed a contract until the summer of 2014. In Gelsenkirchen, Annan was supposed to replace midfielder Ivan Rakitić, who had moved to Spain. He played nine Bundesliga games in the second half of the season for Schalke. At the end of the season he won the DFB Cup with the team.

Along with Ali Karimi and Angelos Charisteas, Annan was one of the much criticized and unnecessary transfers made by then head coach Felix Magath. After Magath's dismissal, the squad began to be reduced in order to save personnel costs. Annan was one of the players eliminated. In August 2011 he was loaned to the Dutch first division club Vitesse Arnheim for one year. Although he played regularly in Arnhem, both clubs could not agree on a transfer. After the loan ended, Annan returned to Gelsenkirchen.

In August 2012 he was loaned out again for the 2012–13 season, this time to Spanish first division club CA Osasuna. Here, however, he was mostly just a substitute player and returned to Schalke at the end of the season. Since his contract expired at the end of the 2013/14 season and there were no concrete offers for Annan, he was relegated to the second team, which competed in the fourth-tier Regional Football League West. Due to a severe shortage of personnel in the Schalke squad (13 players were missing due to injuries), Annan returned to the professional team in the second half of the season. He made his first appearances for Schalke in almost three years, including the second leg of the round of 16 in the Champions League against Real Madrid. After Annan's contract, which expired in June 2014, was not extended beyond the previous contract period, he joined the Finnish first division club HJK Helsinki with a contract until the end of 2014. He made his league debut on September 12, 2014 (27th matchday) in a 2-2 home game against Kuopion PS, coming on as a substitute for Teemu Tainio in the 58th minute.

During the 2014/15 winter break, Annan moved to German second division club TSV 1860 Munich on a free transfer. His contract ended at the end of the season. After a short period of being without a club, Annan first moved back to Norway to Stabaek IF and then back to HJK Helsinki in February 2016. In 2019 he was under contract with Beitar Jerusalem for six months and with Inter Turku from August 2019 to the end of 2021.

International career[change | change source]

Annan playing for Ghana at the 2008 AFCON quarter-final match against Nigeria

Annan represented his country several times at junior level and was also used in Ghana's Olympic team. On March 20, 2007, he was invited to Ghana's senior national team for the first time as a replacement for the injured Michael Essien and made his debut in the friendly against Brazil (final score 0-1) on March 27 at Råsundastadion. He was named to the 23-man squad for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations in his own country. He made his first tournament appearance in the last group game against Morocco and then played on the left side of defense in all three final round games. Ghana finished the tournament in third place. In the following African Championships in Angola in 2010, he won the runner-up title with Ghana. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Annan played all five tournament games in his team's defensive midfield, mostly alongside Kevin-Prince Boateng. In the official tournament report, Annan was named one of Ghana's four outstanding players by the Technical Study Group (TSG) and was praised for his good overview of the game and his confident passing game. 

Honours[change | change source]

Hearts of Oak

Stabæk

Rosenborg

Schalke 04

HJK Helsinki

Ghana

Individual

References[change | change source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Annan, Anthony at National-Football-Teams.com
  2. ↑ Darko, Isaac (18 March 2022). "Former Ghana midfielder Anthony Annan seals move to Finnish club TPS Turku". SportsBrief. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  3. ↑ "Blandede følelser for Anthony Annan" (in Norwegian). Adresseavisen. 23 October 2008. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  4. ↑ "Mestvinnende spillere" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. 19 October 2006. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  5. ↑ "Anthony Annan" (in German). fussballdaten.de. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  6. ↑ "Supercup 2011, Finale: Borussia Dortmund 3:4 FC Schalke 04: Takt. aufstellung" [Supercup 2011, Final: Borussia Dortmund 3:4 FC Schalke 04: Tactical lineup]. kicker (in German). Olympia-Verlag. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  7. ↑ "EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Ghana midfielder Anthony Annan talks GHANAsoccernet about his Finnish league success and HJK's Europa League ambitions". Modern Ghana. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  8. ↑ "Anthony Annan and Evans Mensah win Finnish top flight league". GhanaWeb. 29 October 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Kniksenprisen | Norsk Toppfotball". Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  10. ↑ "Superduellen" (in Norwegian). Verdens Gang. 8 November 2014. Archived from the original on 10 January 2017. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Anthony Annan tips Hearts to win next season's GPL title". GhanaWeb. 15 November 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  12. ↑ "Jalkapallolehdistön tähdistö valittiin – KuPS sai hopeaa, Ilves pronssia ja Lahtikin pääsee europeleihin – Päivän Lehti". www.paivanlehti.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  13. ↑ Karlsen, Håvard (8 November 2009). "Start-spillere hedret". Aftenposten (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  14. ↑ "Anthony Annan scoops top Norway award". Modern Ghana. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
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