SPIELFELD
03/10/2021

Kasim Adams: "I would like to give something back"

TSG Hoffenheim defender Kasim Adams' positive outlook on life is rooted in a personal tragedy from his teenage years. When the Ghanaian came to Europe as a teenager to establish himself in professional football, he had to deal with the death of his mother. "It was a very difficult and also a very painful time. Shortly after I travelled to Spain, my mother passed away. I still had all the grief inside me and I had to deal with it alone on a different continent," explained the 25-year-old in an interview with the club magazine SPIELFELD, which will be published on Friday (12 March).

With the benefit of hindsight, though, those experiences helped him to become "a very strong man with a very strong character," as he puts it himself. Adams explained that he learned a lot from that difficult time in his life, saying: "If I hadn't lost my mother, I wouldn't have developed such a strong feeling of wanting to give something back to people. I was given a lot of help after her death."

Adams also doesn't shy away from self-criticism. "My transfer fee made me a very expensive purchase for TSG at the time. That's why it was and still is important for me to play as well as possible and pay the club back as much as I can," said the centre-back, who arrived from Swiss side Young Boys in the summer of 2018. The fact that he moved to Hoffenheim was "a big thing" for him. "Unfortunately, things didn't go so well in the first year, which was tough for me personally. At the time, I had a strong desire to help the team," explained Adams, who was loaned to Fortuna Düsseldorf last season and has been a frequent starter since his return. "Should the club want to sell me in the future, I would like to ensure the club at least earns my transfer fee from back then," Adams remarked.

Commenting on TSG's objectives for the rest of the Bundesliga campaign, the Ghana international, who contracted the coronavirus in the autumn while on international duty in Africa, said: "Above all, the numerous corona cases have consistently weakened the team. We have missed some players on the pitch and on the bench. But these are things we can hardly influence; we all know that. That said, we're improving from week to week; we've been able to win some games and put in good performances. I hope we get back to the level we belong at soon."

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