Solihull Moors ace Akwasi Asante led by school of hard knocks

WHEN Akwasi Asante’s mum Florence told him to pack his bags for a holiday in England, little did he know it was going to be a long stay.

Amsterdam-born Asante, then 13, was playing for Haarlem with younger brother Edwin where they would train four days a week.

But their mum felt England offered better opportunities and when Asante asked when they were going home, she told him they weren’t.

“Me and my brother Edwin were both playing for Haarlem and we were loving it,” says the 24-year-old. “Edwin was really good for his age and he was meant to be going to Ajax the following season.

“So he was even angrier than me! But mum said, ‘Don’t worry about – I promise you’ll get a club’. We did. We both signed for Birmingham a year later.”

It took Asante a while to get used to the Yam Yam accent from the area the family moved to, but on the pitch he was just as at home as back in .

Marked out as a real talent, he made the Blues’ bench when they were in the Premier League and the Championship.

Injuries at the wrong time eventually led to his release and, after being sidelined for half-a-season, he joined .

But it wasn’t until last season when he signed for that his career properly took off.

“Last year was big for me,” he says. “I made a good choice to leave Kiddy, who were full-time, to go part-time. Many saw that as a backward step but I saw it as a forward step. Solihull Moors were going for it whereas Kiddy – no disrespect, it’s a great club – had lost a few players and were struggling at the end of the season.

“And I wasn’t playing so I felt it was right for me to move on. I had a feeling Solihull were going to do well and get into the Conference, which we did. Last season was mainly about playing. I’d never had a run of games in men’s football until last season. You could say that last season was my first proper season in the men’s game.”

Mistakes

Carefully nurtured by then-boss Marcus Bignot, he achieved his target of starting 30 games and he scored 21 times on their way to the title.

His 12 goals in the so far this season – including back-to-back hat-tricks against and – show he can make the step up.

His story is similar to that of his former Birmingham City team-mate Omar Bogle, who produced for Moors before moving to Grimsby Town where he now tops the League Two goal charts.

Asante says Bogle always had the ability but needed the hard knocks of football – just like himself.

“I needed that set-back to realise,” he says. “When I was at Birmingham you get wrapped in cotton wool – you get everything given to you. You don’t know reality.

“So sometimes you need that reality check. It was the same thing with Omar. Maybe he needed that to say, ‘I need to do things properly now because you only get one chance’. I needed that as well.

“When you’re in an Academy – and Birmingham have got a great one – the coaches do tell you the reality. But you don’t think it’s going to be you. You know when they say things like, ‘You’ll end up playing Non-League, you’ll be out of the game…’ No one at 16, 17, is going to believe that. Everyone thinks they’re going to be a superstar. It doesn’t work like that.

“I was the same. I never thought I’d play in the Conference. I was thought at least I’d be playing in the League. At least. But it happens and it makes you realise.

“It’s made me more hungry. I’ve been there before. I was on the bench for Birmingham in the Premier League and the Championship. I went out on loan to Leagues One and Two. I hope I’m a better player now than I was at 18.”

Asante, who also works as a teaching assistant in a school, watches every game he plays back to learn from his mistakes.

“It can either break you or make you,” he says. “I’m actually glad it’s happened because it opens your eyes to the real world.”

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