Sunday’s great day is a lasting memory for my father
It’s the evening of December 11th, 2013 and just when I was about retiring to bed, my father calls me and asks, “did you forget what today marked?” I answered in the negative. Indeed, I hadn’t forgotten .I had been only engulfed in my own thoughts of just how I could contribute to making a day like that which happened 30 years ago repeat itself.
I was so drowned in my confusion that, not only could I not find the words to write anything about the day, but the strength too. Little did I know that my old man was about to give me something to share with the world; something he had shared with me so many times before and still love to hear it on repeat – the 1983 Africa cup final against Egypt’s Al Ahly .
I can almost perfectly recall how my Dad first narrated his experience prior and during that crucial cup final at the Kumasi stadium 30 years ago to eager,infant ears but I was not going to stop him from repeating it.
He recounts with such pride how supporting Asante Kotoko meant that he and his friends would set off from Accra days ahead of the game to book a hotel or just to rustle a spot to sleep .Any accommodation, regardless of how poor was fine so long as they got in early to be part of the great occasions that Kotoko Cup matches produced those days.
My father tells me about how his friends ridiculed him and made nonsense of a dream he had the day before the game; a dream in which he had practically lived through the entire proceedings of the match; revealing the time and circumstance under which the only goal scored by the legendary “Lord of the green turf”, Opoku Nti, was to come.
A young Opoku Nti brought joy to my father
Oh yes,my old man was hip and young with a free spirit; the kind that got him mocked with remarks like “oh let us be, you cant just eat, drink and be having stupid dreams at night” – a quote that sends him into raucous laughter as he recalls it.
He was however quick to add that his friends’ doubts were not born out of a lack of belief for an Asante Kotoko triumph but rather, “they just didn’t believe the carrier of the good news” he retorted with a smirk on his face.
Well, as destiny would have it, all my father had to do as the match wore on was to literally walk his friends as well as all sitting close by through the sequence of actions which was only about to unfold before their own eyes – the counter attack set in motion by Ernest Appau from the right with a pass to Yahya Kassum, “the butcher” in the middle of the pitch who in turn sent a long pass to John Bannerman in an advanced position on the right who beautifully outwit an on-rushing Ahly defender to send a pre-destined cross to a marauding Opoku Nti who connects it beyond Goalkeeper Thabet and into the net.
Goooaaallll!!!! ”Lord Zico” sets Kumasi on fire and restores my father’s pride amongst his friends and all present.
“I didn’t have to say or do anything after that goal because it was game over” he said.
Much to his dismay, it was his own friends, who took it upon themselves to broadcast to everyone what they had heard the previous night; a gospel that reached many ears immediately after the match including that of a much younger John Agyekum Kuffour who was however old enough to advise him to pay attention to what he thought might then be a special gift of clairvoyance.
If you care to know, it sure was a gift and he hasn’t lost it.
At this stage of our conversation, my father could sense my absent mindedness even though I sat very close by him. It was the same thoughts I had experienced through the day, creeping back into mind and just when I was about to break my long silence he said, “We made it happen”; referring to the role played by the club’s teeming followers’ to ensure success. “We didn’t wait for glory, we caused it but things are different now” he finally added with a sad sigh of resignation.
Here I was, left even more dumbfounded with “goodnight” as the only word i could utter. What could be different now I wondered? That our love for Africa’s club of the century has grown cold or that we just want Kotoko to spur itself back into greatness all by itself before we perhaps show up to share in the glory? I may not readily have answers to these questions or to how the likes of your father and mine supported this great club to a total of seven (7) Africa cup titles, winning two (2) in the process but I am most certain of our ability to come together to do better than we have in recent times to reinstate Kumasi Asante Kotoko SC as a true glorious club.
Through my eyes, Asante Kotoko will be African Champions once again but how soon this will be, depends on you and I.
Long live the King’s club. Fabu!
•1983 Squad – Africa Clubs Cup Competition Champions:
Joseph Carr, Ernest Apau, Kwasi Appiah, Seth Ampadu, Addae Kyenkyeheune, Papa Arko (Captain), John Smith Bannerman, Yahya Kassum, Ebo Mends, Opoku Nti*, Isaac Afranie, Arkye Ezuah, Charles Kwame Sampson, Ahmed Rockson, Emmanuel “Joe Tex” Quaye, Francis Agyeman
Head Coach: Ibrahim SundayIbrahim
•Samuel Opoku Nti was voted as Africa’s Best Player of the Year by the African Sportswriters Association and 2nd Best African Player of the Year by France Football.
Nyfa Kotokovski 