Solomon Asante scored twice for Phoenix Rising Stars, while in-form Ansumah Abubakar Ankrah netted his fourth goal in two games for his Swiss club. Emmanuel Gyasi was also on target for Spezia in the Italian Serie B.
Edmund Okai Gyimah brings to you a wrap-up of performance of Ghanaian players abroad last weekend.
ENGLAND Striker Jordan Ayew lasted for 65 minutes for Crystal Palace who lost 0-2 to his former club Aston Villa. In the Championship, Andre Ayew played for 90 minutes for Swansea who lost 0-1 to Premiership-bound Leeds United at the Liberty Stadium.
ITALY
Moses Odjer replaced Anthony Taugourdeau in the 61st minute as Trapani went away to hold Chievo to a 1-1 draw.
Holding midfielder Abdul Basit played the final four minutes for next season Serie A campaigners Benevento who drew 1-1 with Venezia.
Emmanuel Gyasi netted the second goal with a good display for Zpezia as they walloped Cosenza 5-1.
SPAIN Central defender Joseph Aidoo was at the heart of defence for Celta Vigo who lost 1-2 away to Osasuna in the La Liga.
MADRID, SPAIN – JULY 11: (BILD ZEITUNG OUT) Sidnei Da Silva of Real Betis Balompie and Thomas Teye Partey of Atletico de Madrid battle for the ball during the Liga match between Club Atletico de Madrid and Real Betis Balompie at Wanda Metropolitano on July 11, 2020 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Alejandro Rios/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
Thomas Partey was at his usual best in midfield for Atletico Madrid who beat Real Betis 1-0 at the Wanda Metropolitano.
In the La Liga 2, Mujaid Sadick Aliu played for 56 minutes in central defence for Deportivo La Coruna who lost 2-3 to lowly ranked Extremadura. Black Satellites midfielder Abdulai Sabit played for 85 minutes for the winners.]
GERMANY Dennis Eckert Ayensa, a player of Ghanaian, German and Spanish heritage, played for 90 minutes for FC Ingolstadt 04 who thrashed Nurnberg 3-1 in a qualification clash for the Bundesliga.
SWITZERLAND In the Swiss Superleague, Lawrence Ati Zigi was in post for St. Gallen, while Grejohn Kyei was in action for 82 minutes for the Servette team which played out a 1-1 game at Stade Geneva.
Ansuma Abubakar Ankrah was on target for Kriens SC
In the Swiss second tier, in form Ansuma Abubakar Ankrah netted the second goal for Kriens SC as they went away to beat FC Chiasso 4-2.
DENMARK Isaac Atanga made way for compatriot Francis Abu in the 62nd minute while Ibrahim Sadiq and Maxwell Woledzi came in the second half as their side Nordsjaelland drew goalless with AaB at Farum.
USA Mercurial Solomon Asante netted a brace for Phoenix Rising Stars as they walloped LA Galaxy II 4-0.
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AshantiGold have announced iGimel Sportswear as their official kits sponsor for the upcoming 2020/21 season.
The Miners on Sunday took to the club’s Twitter handle to unveil the UK-based manufacturing firm as its new kits sponsors. However, the duration of the deal was not disclosed.
AshantiGold will represent Ghana in next season’s Caf Confederation Cup, and Chief Executive Emmanuel Frimpong of the club has told Kumasi-based Oyerapa FM that – as part of the deal – the club have been promised some cash components if they reach the final of next season’s CAF Confederation Cup campaign.
He revealed that AshantiGold will pocket US$ 150,000 for a semi-final berth and an additional US$ 200,000 should they reach the final.
⚫️ We announce iGimel Sportswear as our official kits sponsor.
Veteran Ghanaian Coach J.E. Sarpong has been highly honored by some former students of Accra Academy, a senior high school in Ghana.
Coach Sarpong served as sports master of the school and was highly instrumental in the unearthing of talents in various sporting disciplines.
Some former students from various year groups who form part of a WhatsApp group by name, ‘Accra Aca Sports Legends’ who passed through his hands as athletes during their school days decided to come together and contribute towards purchasing a car for the former Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak Coach.
Notable among some of the contributors are Leo Myles Mills Jnr, a former national athlete and Princeton Owusu-Ansah, a former Ghana international.
The contributors are mostly based in the UK and the USA.
It has not been revealed yet the exact amount raised but the car purchased is a Toyota Echo.
Find below the list of persons who contributed towards this initiative.
Rashid Gaulam (former RTU defender) Leo Myles Mills – (Babylonia) Nasiru Ibrahim Eric Ashie Christian McKenzie – (CK) Harry Asante Gyamera Daniel Wiafe Wayo Ofoate Kudjoe Ernest Darkwa Addae – (Lubricanto) David Obeng – (Leebaba) Ofori Boadu – (Irie Man) Yaw Skelenze John Hudson Odoi (Commando) Bishop Ransford Baffour Akoto Samuel Quao Junior (Ideas) Theodore Tetteh – (Vongo) James Quainor – (Sheale) Princeton Owusu Ansah (Asey Moyo) Michael Ashitey (Rambo)
Environmental and disease control experts on Friday fumigated our secretariat in Kumasi as Management takes steps to keep the office clean against Coronavirus.
The fumigation exercise, which was done by officials of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, saw both the interior and exterior of the secretariat disinfected.
The exercise forms part of Management’s zeal to keep the office safe from the deadly novel pandemic.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Yaw Adu told Kotoko Express App that, Management intended to sanitise and clean up the office to make it safe for both staff and visitors.
“The Covid19 infections keep increasing and Kotoko secretariat is open to the public. Anyone seeking information, players, coaches, technical staff and everybody come here. Our administrative staff are important to us so we needed to protect ourselves and our visitors. That is the reason we had to fumigate the secretariat.”
According to the leading German transfer website Transfermarkt, the top 10 transfer sales out of the Kumasi-based club took place between the long period of 1997 to 2017.
The most recent deal took place few seasons ago as Dauda Mohammed made a move to Anderlecht in Belgium.
Check the complete top five below…
1. Illiasu Shilla to Saturn Ramenskoe (Russia)
Year: 2006/7 Fee: €1.00m Position: Central defender Age: 23
2. Isaac Vorsah to TSG Hoffenheim (Germany)
Year: 2008/9 Fee: €1.00m Position: Central defender Age: 20
3. Samuel Inkoom to FC Basel (Switzerland)
Year: 2009/10 Fee: €540k Position: Right back Age: 20
“I would beg him not to,” Herbert Mensah replied, in a recent interview with TV3’s Juliet Bawuah, on why steering the affairs of Ghanaian super-club Asante Kotoko is a responsibility he’d rather not take on.
The ‘him’ referred to?
Well, we’d come to that soon enough, if you don’t already have it figured out by then.
See, Mensah — one of Ghana’s finest administrators — has handled Kotoko in the past, a very successful spell from 1999 to 2003. He was, in fact, the first Kotoko leader I ever knew; not my fault, really, as I wasn’t quite 10 years old when his tenure ended. Still, I remember it quite well, not because Kotoko won an awful lot in that period (archrivals Hearts actually reigned supreme in those days, a long time ago), but due to the good vibes surrounding the club at the time (this I know, mainly, from reading the many exciting issues of the Kotoko Express my taxi-driving dad would bring home each week).
Mensah departed, and I have never been as excited about anyone at the helm of the club I grew to love — until very recently, that is, when it was rumored, with much credibility, that Nana Yaw Amponsah was set to be installed as the club’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
And why not?
During his bid to become president of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) last year, Amponsah pursued a campaign rooted in a manifesto bursting with objectives that could transform Ghana football into the thriving paradise it has always had the potential to be. He failed, though, coming in a distant yet respectable third after the first two rounds of voting, before dropping out altogether. In the months that have followed Kurt Okraku’s victory, little has been heard from Amponsah’s camp. What he hasn’t lost, though, is the sweet gospel he preached, and the desire to make a seismic impact on the Ghanaian football landscape.
While the FA presidency may be the most prestigious and most challenging office in the land, the seat at Kotoko is probably just as hot, affording its occupant just a little more ease, if any. Kotoko is Ghana’s biggest club, after all, also its most successful, and – in the International Federation of Football History and Statistics’ esteemed opinion — Africa’s Club of the Century.
The 20th Century, that is.
In the 21st, there has been little worth celebrating about the Porcupine Warriors. Yes, they’ve regained their hold – sort of – as the dominant domestic force, but Kotoko’s continental presence has faded into a blur. As a modern, professionally-run football club, there is even less to write home about, as this writer has often, and loudly, lamented. The club is in dire need of an acceleration in the right direction, but has never quite had capable hands at the wheel; even when it’s looked like they have, the conductors – a wide, witless web of hangers-on – have kept things stuck on reverse.
See, Kotoko is an institution seemingly set in its ways, possessed by forces – seen and unseen – that are devoted to a retention of tried, tested, and dated methods. An illustration of this, if you need any, occurred only a few seasons ago, when Zdravko Logarusic was named head coach of Kotoko. Remember what happened when the Croatian attempted to introduce an unpopular, unfamiliar 3-5-2 formation?
Not all in Kotoko’s ranks were enthused, even though results weren’t so bad. And so some of the bolder dissenters turned up one fine morning to interrupt a training session; days later, Logarusic was out.
Sacked.
There are, of course, other instances that have highlighted just how impermeable Kotoko could be when change, even if wholly positive, appears on the horizon. Kotoko might only be a subset – a huge subset, granted – of Ghana football, yet I reckon Amponsah would have had an easier time turning the latter around. Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ corruption exposé in 2012 highlighted the need for the Ghanaian game’s makeover – if that wasn’t already apparent – and the work of the Dr. Kofi Amoah-led Normalization Committee tilled the ground enough for Okraku to plant his seeds of change. Kotoko’s thirst for same is obvious, too, not least to the Manhyia Palace, seat of Ashanti royal power and the source of Kotoko’s identity and pride.
Enter Exit Amponsah — even before his seemingly imminent appointment had been confirmed — for reasons that, frankly, I find absurd.
The young man was surely worth the hype – and worth the hope, too, in fact. Had the FA polls not been reduced – as is, indeed, the case with almost all elections – to a popularity contest, Amponsah might have had a fairer crack at winning, yet Kotoko could have been the big winners here, harnessing those grand ideas still floating around in Amponsah’s head.
Now, it’s easy to see why Amponsah would jump at the prospect of taking up Kotoko’s reins. Kumasi is, in many ways, the beating heart of Ghanaian football – Kotoko the pulse – and if he could make a mark there, that would be a surer ticket for the FA’s top job if ever he fancies another go. A low profile did Amponsah little good the first time out, and this looked like his chance to fix it.
Chances are, though, that he would have left as broken as many of his would-have-been predecessors. Rarely has anyone signed off at Kotoko on a high, or even with their reputation intact. It’s not always been their fault, however. Kotoko is a huge chessboard, and Life Patron Otumfuo Osei Tutu II – the king and the himmentioned at the outset – is the only piece that ever emerges unscathed. Everyone – anyone, really – could be sacrificed when things get tough; often, after the coach, the CEO runs the greatest risk among the pawns.
Ask, among others, George Amoako.
A man with sights set on a five-year plan, running a club that has for so long operated a five-game plan, would almost certainly have found himself at odds with the status quo. For Amponsah to survive that red sea, fraught with storms and other frightening perils, he’d have needed a miracle. As it turns out, he wouldn’t have to cross the raging sea at all. And, despite suggestions that he could yet get the nod courtesy some late unforeseeable twist, it’s in Amponsah’s best interests that things stay as they are.
Clifford Aboagye was billed not only as one of the greatest prospects of his era but indeed one of the most exciting Ghanaian player ever.
That can, admittedly, get quite tiresome.We’re used to the normal chitter-chatter of a promising young footballer being the next superstar, so such comparisons are usually taking with a fistful of salt. Clifford Aboagye’s demise has made him the poster boy of under-achievement; typecast in every conversation as the archetype of wasted potential.
The Accra -born attacking midfielder, was in his early years, considered to be as good as, if not better than most of Ghana’s best- attacking midfielders of yore.
Aboagye started learning the ropes at Ghanaian side, International Allies where his superb performances earned him a place in the Black Satellites team that represented Ghana at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey.
Not having the height (5ft 4in), the build or the speed that many consider prerequisites of midfielders in modern-day football. That is precisely why it was a delight to see the way he dominated matches, proving that exquisite technique and innate talent still have the beating of power football.
He was blessed with the ability to get fans off their seats. A flair player in the truest sense of the word. He used his talent to entertain. Whether through his dazzling dribbling ability incisive passes or deft touches, this was a player who gave supporters their money’s worth and his name will not be forgotten by patriots who watched the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey.
It came as no surprise when he was awarded the Bronze Ball of the tournament as he led the Black Satellites to a third-place finish. Such performances couldn’t go unnoticed as Aboagye earned for himself a lucrative move to Serie A side Udinese Calcio, who subsequently loaned him Spanish outfit Granada CF with whom he barely made a mark.
At Granada B, he could only score 8 goals in 84 games. That ended his stay with the Spanish outfit he was sent out on loan to Mexican side Club Atlas with whom he stayed with for two seasons chalking 63 appearances with 2 goals. Sheer ignominy of his fall from grace led to only 15 appearances at his next club Queretaro
Aboagye’s downward trajectory has surprised many especially his fans and neutral Ghanaian football lovers alike. Even with spells with Liga MX sides Club Atlas and Queretaro, Clifford Aboagye has certainly failed to live up to the potential he had.
This is a player once tipped to hoist the flag of Ghana high on the global map but…
Currently, with another Mexican outfit, Tijuana, his name is rarely mentioned without the melancholic pondering of “Whatever happened to” preceding it- unless of course his name is being referenced in fable-like fashion, warning the pressures of mounting expectation upon the shoulders of young footballers. Here was this kid who had incredible close control, a first touch that was the stuff of dreams and a performance level that was at a far higher than his age suggested.
He was destined to be a star but it just didn’t work out as it should have. I doubt we will ever have a definitive reason why, but we can look at his career and try and figure where exactly Aboagye stopped being one of the game’s biggest talents.
At 25, Clifford Aboagye has fallen drastically short of what his formative displays promised to provide. His supreme talent as a youngster was squandered due to a combination of pressure, greed and too much too soon – a problem which is becoming more prevalent for today’s young footballers. Once a national treasure, his career now seemed trapped deep in the bowels of an echo chamber, with every one of Aboagye’s efforts reverberating with the same infuriating, futile result. The former starlet is the definition of a ‘what might have been a legend.’
Angel Sports has through in-depth investigations also released its highest paid Ghanaian footballers. The list is based on the salaries of the players annually.
It totals the monthly salaries of players and sums it to an annual payment. Let’s first look at the highest paid players from some of the top clubs before we delve into the highest paid players in Ghana.- Advertisement – – Advertisement –
The highest paid player in Ashanti Gold is Shafiu Mumuni who takes home GHc22, 800, while the highest at Kotoko Felix Annan takes GHc48, 000. Hearts of Oak’s Abednego Tetteh takes home a whopping GHc 60,000 annually. Now let’s look at the top 10 most paid football players in Ghana based on annual salary take.
10. Yahya Mohammed
He plays for Aduana Stars and takes home GHc 24,000 annually. He has featured for the Black Stars Team B and has consistently been a terror against most clubs. He is a former Kumasi Asante Kotoko star.
9. Kwesi Donsu
He is an integral part of the Medeama football club. He has been linked so many times to Kotoko and Hearts and yet he remains loyal to Medeama. He takes home GHc 26,400 annually.
8. Fatau Dauda
A national asset who now plies his trade for Legon Cities. Legon Cities have been one of the exciting teams in the nation. Their matches on Fridays were characterized by great performances from musicians to warm up the crowd before the match starts. Dauda takes home GHc 30,000 annually
7. Kwame Poku
A creative Kotoko player who bags GHc 36,000 annually
6.Augustine Okrah
Another Kotoko Player who has received so much attention from several clubs. He also takes home GHc 36, 000 annually.
5. Mamane Lawali
He is a new Hearts of Oak player expected to explode in the league. He is to take GHc 42, 000 annually
4. Nuru Suley
Nuru Suley
He is another crucial player for Hearts of oak. He bags GHc 48,000 annually.
3. Felix Annan
He is another national asset and goalkeeper for Kotoko. He takes GHc 2000 a month and 48, 000 annually.
2. Abednego Tetteh
He is one of the freshest stars for Hearts. His annual salary is GHc 60,000
1. Victorien Adebayor
The highest paid player in Ghana is Victorien Adebayor. He is from Niger and currently plays for Inter allies. He earns a staggering GHc 83, 376 annually
Who else were you expecting in the top 10?
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Ghana Premier League side Ashanti Gold are close to landing a deal worth $3million with an International Airline Company.
Oyerepa Sports reported that the International Airline company has shown interest in sponsoring the Obuasi-based team with $3m to become their title sponsors.
The Africa rep of UK-based IGimel, Kwabena Amponsah – who brokered the shirt sponsorship deal for the Miners, is also in charge of this negotiations.
He disclosed that had it not been the novel COVID-19 pandemic, the deal would have been completed.
“If not for COVID-19, we should have concluded the deal with the Airline company at $3m ,they want to be title sponsors and am meeting them today to further the negotiations,” Kwabena Amponsah ,Africa rep of iGimel told Oyerepa 100.7FM
“Our previous discussions was that they sponsor us for ticketing during our Africa campaign but they preferred to be title sponsors”
“I am very optimistic we can reach an agreement so that the deal starts from next season.”
Betway has been the headline sponsors of AshantiGold for the past two seasons with Kikuu and Jungle Energy Drink as partners.
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