Former Kotoko midfielder Stephen Oduro has revealed the club kept paying him after leaving the Porcupine Warriors to stay in the United State of America.
Oduro, who is considered as one of Kotoko’s great departed the club at the end of the 2016/2017 season.
In an interview with local portal Ghanasportspage.com, he disclosed he was appointed to serve as a Player Welfare Officer under Dr. Kwame Kyei’s administration but declined to move to the USA where his family lived.
Despite not working for the club, Oduro has revealed he was paid for a year at the club.
“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”,
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.
“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.