Dan Addo Profile
As a teenage prodigy, much was expected from him, but his career never took off as expected when first signed by Bayer Leverkusen and ended up languishing in the Austrian second division.
When the going became really tough for Ghana's Black Starlets in their semi-final encounter against their Australian opponents at the second FIFA/ JVC World Under-17 Championship in Japan, it was his twenty-five metre shot dodged by then skipper, Sebastian Barnes which gave Ghanaians a ray of hope that for the second time in two years a second grand final berth had been secured.
It was in that tournament that he beat the likes of Nigerian international player, Kanu Nwanko who is now riding on a crest wave with English side, Arsenal to the golden ball award. This was after he had helped the Starlets bring the world to their feet during Italia'91. Apart from his accolade 'Darling Boy', which people prefer to call him, he is also known as 'Fama me' in some parts of Accra - apparently for calling for a pass from a colleague during one of the matches in that competition.
It was after that tournament that his former club, Accra Great Olympics transferred him to Bayern Leverkusen of Germany.
In his short career, Daniel Addo has featured for the senior national team, the Black Stars and the Black Meteors. After the periods of 1991 and 1993 that he featured for the Black Starlets, he helped Ghana qualify for Atlanta'96. However, when the final roll call was made his name was nowhere to be found.
He also featured in the Black Stars-Leone Stars qualifying match for South Africa'96 at the Accra Sports Stadium and licked the Sierra Leoneans by 4-1. After 1996, the once 'Darling Boy' of Ghana soccer sunk into oblivion as far as call up for national duty in any of the national teams is concerned. Quite recently, attempts by national coach, Giuseppe Dossena to get him play for the Black Stars against the Ph'araohs of Egypt in Cairo ran into a wall. Today, however, whatever worries Dossena thought he had in drafting Daniel Addo into any of the teams he handles in Ghana are over. Currently, he is with the Black Stars who are in camp at the Elmina Beach Resort preparing frantically for CAN 2000, which kicks off in Ghana next Saturday.
He explained why he has been absent from the national team all this time when the Asante Kotoko Express barged into him at the Black Stars camp last Friday. "Because I wasn't playing for the national team, I chose to concentrate on playing for my club. At the moment, I am with Karlshrue and I'm one of their key players so they find it very difficult releasing me. However, this time, because of the importance of this particular tournament, I explained things to them and they released me".
On how he feels to be back in the national team and his opinion on CAN 2000, Addo said, 'I feel good to be back in the team. The tournament will be a difficult one. Countries have improved tremendously and there is no underdog. We've also got good materials to deal with every opponent. I believe we can get to the final where the winner would be determined. This team has been together from the Under-17, 20 and 23 levels and in spite of the absence of Abedi Pele and Tony Yeboah, we can be successful if we do what the coach tells us to do. We can rise to the occasion".
His return, which a lot of football fans have heralded, suffered a little setback when he sustained injury at training. He confirmed that to Asante Kotoko Express but said, " I'm getting better. I was surprised I was able to play our first trial match. Everybody was happy with my performance but I think I could have done better had it not been the injury. I'm giving it serious attention and I hope to be fully fit in no time".
Having expressed his readiness to serve his nation again after three to four years of absence, Daniel Addo made an appeal to all Ghanaians in his concluding remarks. "Come and cheer us even when proceedings become tough for us. There are bound to be difficulties in this march we will embark upon. That is something characteristic with Ghanaian national teams and we will pick up match after match. Despite the occasional boos when the going becomes difficult, I think they support the national teams well and I hope they will do it again. But all said, the onus lies on us to die a little for Ghana. We will kill ourselves!"