This is how John Painstil ended up as a defender in his football career

pulse-ghana admin

November 23, 2017 4:35 PM

John Paintsil talks about how he was converted from an attacker to a defender

John Paintsil was playing for Berekum Arsenal as an attacker early on in his football career but retired as a right back.

Painstil made that revelation that he was converted into a right back when he joined the u-20 national team.

“I was eating and the coach asked me to stand up which I did. He then told me I was playing the next day as a right back. He then told me if I will go home if I don’t play well. I stopped eating right after.

“I was scared because I have never played as defender and we were going to play against Germany.” “I went into the room with my open. I could not sleep the whole night.

“We started the game and we took the lead. In the 67th minute, I wanted to be disciplined at first but later on I felt I wanted to take the risk. I was good when it came to advancing into the attack because I was originally a skillful attacker.

“I took the ball from the line I moved up gradually and I cut in and laid a pass for Derek Boateng to finish.

"The game ended with a 1-1 score line. After the game Coach E.K Afranie came to the dressing room and announced that he his back four.”

John Painstil was part of the Ghana National U-20 team that made the final of the 2001 u-20 World cup as they side lost to Argentina to finish second.

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