Ibrahim Sunday weighs in on greatest ever Ghanaian footballer debate

Legendary Ghanaian footballer Ibrahim Sunday has offered his two cents on the debate over Ghana’s greatest ever player.

If you go and ask most connoisseur of the game in the country right now, you will most likely here the name, Abedi Ayew ‘Pele’.

Arguably the greatest African forward of the early 1990’s Abedi is synonymous with Ghanaian football.

Best known for a six-year stint in France with Marseille, he would win two league titles and a European Cup during that time.

However, coach Sunday in an exclusive interview with FootballMadeInGhana.com, made strong arguments for another contender, Baba Yara popularly called King Winger.

“All the players came during their time, if I talk about Baba Yara a lot of people don’t know about him but he was the greatest player of his time. Fantastic player!”

“We had several others who were also great but Baba Yara was on another level. The President of France back then made a famous remark that ‘Ghanaians don’t know anything apart from Babayara’, at a time without as much media coverage as today he was making waves all over the world”

“If he was playing today, he would’ve been compared to the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi”

Yara’s rise to fame was unprecedented as a result of his goal-scoring skills; however, his football career was abruptly put to an end as a result of a car accident.

He started out as a horse jockey player – as a youngster at the Accra Turf Club between 1950 and 1955. Asante Kotoko signed him in 1955, and after a few years, became the greatest footballer of his generation.

Yara was a proud member of the 1961 Black Stars and won 51 caps for Black Stars, scoring 49 goals which is a lot of goals for a winger and was thus nicknamed ‘King of Wingers’.

He played active football from 1955-1963, and was voted Footballer of the year twice; the highest football accolade in the country.

Kumasi Sports Stadium was named after Baba Yara on the April 12th of 2005 for his exceptional talent and immense contribution to Ghana football.