Frank Acheampong

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Frank Acheampong
Frank-acheampong-1397140794.jpg
Frank Acheampong at an
autograph session of the RSC Anderlecht (2014)
Personnel
birthday October 16, 1993
place of birth Accra ,  Ghana
size 169 cm
position Left winger
Juniors
Years station
King Faisal Babes
2013-2014 RSC Anderlecht
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
2009-2010 King Faisal Babes
2010-2011 Berekum Chelsea
2011-2013 Buriram PEA / United 56 (19)
2013 →  RSC Anderlecht  (loan) 0 0(0)
2013-2017 RSC Anderlecht 87 (10)
2017– Tianjin Teda 68 (31)
National team
Years selection Games (goals) 2
Ghana U20
2012-2018 Ghana 23 (2)
1 Only league games are given.
Status: February 26, 2020

2 As of February 26, 2020

Frank "Messi" Opoku Acheampong (born October 16, 1993 in Accra ) is a Ghanaian football player on the position of a striker and winger . It was awarded to Tianjin Teda by RSC Anderlecht in June 2017 and signed by the Chinese club on January 1, 2018 for a transfer fee of 4.5 million euros. His younger brother Frederick Acheampong is also active as a football player.

Club career

Career start at home

Acheampong, who was born in the Ghanaian capital in 1993, began his career as a soccer player in the offspring of the King Faisal Babes from Kumasi . There the trained winger, who was already known for his speed and trickery at the time, made his first division debut in the Ghanaian Premier League in 2009 under the Croatian Zdravko Logarušić . After a season in the first class and a tenth place in the table of the Babes , the aggressive Acheampong switched to league rivals Berekum Chelsea in the summer of 2010 . During this season he completed a trial training session at the Croatian club NK Osijek in May 2010 , which ended without a contract offer for the offensive player. In the same year he was invited by Sheikh Mansour , the main shareholder of the English club Manchester City , to Abu Dhabi to test him at their local club al-Jazira Club , and then possibly send him to Manchester City.

Acheampong, which was quickly given the nickname Messi by the Ghanaian fans, who compared him to world footballer Lionel Messi because of his technique , also had numerous other offers. Already at this time, as difficulties in obtaining an English work permit were expected, he was put in touch with a Belgian prospect or the Italian representative Udinese Calcio . Before Berekum Chelsea emerged as champions of the highest Ghanaian soccer league at the end of the 2010/11 season and his club was relegated to the second division, the club received an offer from the Thai club Buriram PEA for the Ghanaian U-20 international.

Change to Thailand

In February 2011 Acheampong finally moved to Thailand, where he quickly established himself as a regular in the club's attack line. For the club from the province of Buri Ram , he completed the game in 2011 22 league games in the Thai Premier League , where he contributed seven goals and was with the team after just a single season defeat clearer champion and thus for the group stage of the 2012 AFC Champions League qualifying . With Buriram PEA, where he next scorer Franck Ohandza and suchao nuchnum team internally third-leading scorer, he was won this year also the Thai FA Cup after a 1: 0 final victory in extra time over Muangthong United , and the Thai League Cup after a 2-0 final victory over Port FC In the aforementioned AFC Champions League 2012, the Thais could not prevail against the competition and were still the bottom of group H behind Guangzhou Evergrande (1st), Kashiwa Reysol (2nd) and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (3rd) from the current tournament. Acheampong himself contributed two assists in the first game, a 3-2 win over Kashiwa Reysol. In the next game, a 2-1 win over Guangzhou Evergrande, he was involved in both goals of his team with one goal and one assist and was in all six of his team's games throughout the tournament.

In the subsequent Thai Premier League 2012 Acheampong and his team ranked only fourth in the table, with ten goals himself being the top scorer of his team and being used in all 34 league games. In addition, he won the Thai FA Cup 2012 and the Thai League Cup 2012 with the team as defending champion . Due to the first-mentioned success, the team was allowed to participate in the qualifying round for the AFC Champions League 2013 . At the end of the season in November 2012, the Ghanaian, who alternated between winger and striker , was courted by Scottish top club Celtic Glasgow , which offered £ 700,000 for the offensive talent. Buriram United, the new name of his regular club, had previously turned down an offer for £ 625,000 from the German club Borussia Mönchengladbach . Furthermore, various clubs from the People's Republic of China , as well as the Italian club US Palermo in 2010, are said to have been interested in Frank Acheampong. In mid-December 2012 it became known that Celtic Glasgow had stopped wooing the young Ghanaian and was instead interested in the US striker Juan Agudelo .

Change to Belgium on loan and fixed commitment

On January 28, the top Belgian club RSC Anderlecht announced the loan commitment of the young offensive player for the next six months until the end of the season; the club also had the option of a fixed commitment after the loan period. While his home club Buriram United made it to the quarter-finals of the 2013 AFC Champions League and was eliminated there after two narrow defeats against the Iranian club Esteghlal Tehran , he was only used in the youth team with the Belgians. With the reserve team (U-19) of the Anderlecht team he took part in the prestigious Torneo di Viareggio in Tuscany and was used by René Peeters in all seven matches of his team and scored three goals. He scored two of these goals in a 3-0 win in the final against the AC Milan youth team .

In mid-April, those responsible at RSC Anderlecht announced the fixed commitment of the Ghanaian international and paid a rumored transfer fee of one million euros for the Ghanaian Messi, which was around 37 million baht and was therefore a record amount by Thai standards. Subsequently, the commitment was criticized by experts, including the Belgian Robert Procureur , who is active in the Asian region , as overpriced, as the purchase option in the loan contract was used during the transfer, but the transfer fee was many times higher than the expected transfer fee after the loan period had expired. After the commitment, the Ghanaian was no longer used in the professional team and was only there when he won the Belgian Supercup 2013 as an unused reserve player on the bench. So he was not playfully involved in the championship title that the violet-whites won at the end of the 2012/13 season .

First appearances for the professionals

Frank Acheampong as player of RSC Anderlecht (2014)

In the 2013/14 season Acheampong finally made his competitive debut for the professionals of RSC Anderlecht, when he gave up for former Dutch team player Demy de Zeeuw on July 28, 2013 in the 2-3 home defeat against KSC Lokeren from the 70th minute of the game came the lawn. Under John van den Brom he quickly became a regular, with three goals and as many assists in the first seven championship rounds after six appearances. Until shortly before the turn of the year 2013/14, van den Brom used him predominantly as a left winger, more rarely as a right winger, and often left him on the pitch for the full duration of the game. Furthermore, he was on the pitch in all six of his team's group matches in the 2013/14 UEFA Champions League , although he was never used for more than one season and was quickly eliminated from the current tournament with only one point. After his number of missions had gradually decreased from December 2013, among other things due to an injury break, the Ghanaian was no longer used in the professional team from the new year. While his former Thai club won the championship title in November 2013 after 32 league games without a single defeat, as well as Thai cup and league cup winners, Acheampong did not sit on the bench in a single competitive game of the Belgian professionals, but spent almost the entire time until the end of the season at the Youth, before he only came back to isolated short appearances in the championship round after the regular season under Besnik Hasi . With the team he was again Belgian champion after 18 missions, three goals and four assists in the regular season, as well as six goalless short appearances in the following championship round. Acheampong was also used in the Belgian Football Cup 2013/14 and scored a goal in two appearances before he was eliminated with the team in the round of 16 on penalties against KVC Westerlo .

Following this successful season he played the Supercup game against the cup winners KSC Lokeren on July 20, 2014, which the Anderlecht won 2-1. In the course of the 2014/15 season , the fast and technically savvy Ghanaian was converted from the Albanian Hasi to a defensive force, after initially he was mainly used on the flanks as a winger. As in the league, Acheampong acted as a regular on the left side in the group stage of the Champions League 2014/15 and was used in five of his six group appearances over the full 90 minutes. With the team he reached the third place in the group, which meant participation in the intermediate round , the sixteenth finals of the Europa League 2014/15 . The team was eliminated from the current competition against FK Dynamo Moscow . For RSC Anderlecht he was a regular player in 25 regular-time games in the 2014/15 season, scoring two goals and four assists. After a third place after completing the regular season, he took part in all ten games of the championship round, which he finished with the team again just in third place. In the Belgian Football Cup 2014/15 , the team around the young Ghanaian Messi reached the final, in which it was defeated by Club Bruges just 1: 2. In February 2015, Acheampong's contract, which expired in the summer of 2017, was extended by another two years and he was thus tied to the club until the summer of 2019.

In June 2017, Acheampong was awarded to Tianjin Teda in the Chinese Super League and only six months later the Chinese club firmly signed it.

National team career

Via the U-20 to the Ghanaian A national team

Acheampong as Ghanaian national player (2015)

After Acheampong had come to various missions for the Ghanaian U-20 national team , of which he was also briefly captain, he made his debut in the senior national team of his home country in 2012 at the age of 18. With the U-20 he took in March 2013 at the U-20 African Cup of 2013 in Algeria part and qualified as vice African champions behind Egypt , which emerged as the winner in the final on penalties, for the U-20 World Cup the same year in of Turkey . Under Sellas Tetteh , the team barely made it into the second round as third party and fought their way through to the semi-finals, where the team lost 2-1 to the French of the same age , but defeated the Iraqi U-20s 3-0 in the game for third place . Frank Acheampong was used in all seven of his team's games and, with two hits , was one of the team's main performers alongside the overpowering Ebenezer Assifuah .

In August 2012, the Ghanaian Messi was called up for the first time by James Kwesi Appiah for a friendly against China in the Ghanaian national team . In the game he made his official debut in the senior national team of his home country on August 15, 2012 at the age of 18 years, nine months and 30 days, when he was left winger on the grass from the start and from the 60th minute by the attacking Abdul Majeed Waris was replaced. After that it was largely quiet about the fast and agile player; it was not until September 2013 that it was convened again. Acheampong sat on the substitute bench in an African World Cup qualifier against Zambia and only four days later he made his second international appearance in a friendly match during the Kirin Challenge Cup against Japan . He was used in the 1: 3 defeat over the full game as a left winger and scored the opening goal in the 24th minute of the game and at the same time also the only goal of his team.

After he was not considered for the subsequent World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and there were also no nominations for the team during qualifying for the 2015 African Cup of Nations, the Ghanaian Messi was brought into the Ghanaian squad for the subsequent finals in Equatorial Guinea by Avram Grant . In the group stage, only on the bench, he was used as a substitute on the flanks from the quarterfinals and acted twice as a substitute for Christian Atsu and once as a substitute for André Ayew . With the team he made it to the final, where the team lost to Ivory Coast after 8: 9 on penalties . After the Ghanaians already looked like a fixed winner at the beginning of the penalty shoot-out, after the first two goals were scored and the Ivorians missed on their first two attempts, Afriyie Acquah as the third Ghanaian shooter and Acheampong as the fourth shooter could not score either and thus had a big one Share in the final defeat. Even after the African Cup of Nations, he was called up to a friendly international match against Senegal in March of the same year and was also used in this. Further international appearances followed this year.

successes

with Berekum Chelsea
with Buriram PEA / United
with the offspring of RSC Anderlecht
with the RSC Anderlecht
with the Ghanaian U-20 national team
with the Ghanaian national team

Web links

Commons : Frank Acheampong  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Messi" sve oduševio već na prvom treningu (Croatian), accessed on July 30, 2015
  2. ↑ a b Video: Manchester City swoop for Ghana prodigy 'Messi' ( Memento from November 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 30, 2015
  3. ↑ a b c Celtic face battle to land 'Ghana Messi' Frank Acheampong , accessed July 30, 2015
  4. ↑ Celtic drop interest in Ghana winger Frank Acheampong , accessed on July 30, 2015
  5. ↑ Acheampong and Anderlecht close the deal , accessed on July 30, 2015
  6. ↑ Anderlecht commits Acheampong , accessed on July 30, 2015
  7. ↑ "Anderlecht paid too much for Acheampong" , accessed on July 30, 2015
  8. ↑ Petite opération pour Acheampong (French), accessed on July 30, 2015
  9. ↑ FRANK ACHEAMPONG EXTENDS CONTRACT WITH TWO YEARS ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), July 30, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / rsca.be
  10. ↑ Frank Acheampong - player profile 2017 | Transfer market . ( transfermarkt.de [accessed on July 13, 2017]).
  11. ↑ Rio 2014 Stars to Watch: Frank Acheampong (English), accessed July 30, 2015
  12. ↑ Frank Acheampong Signs New Anderlecht Contract ( Memento of the original from June 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed July 30, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sports.peacefmonline.com
personal data
SURNAME Acheampong, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Acheampong, Frank Opoku (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ghanaian soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1993
PLACE OF BIRTH Accra , Ghana