The INDAFA Park at Mamprobi, a
suburb of Accra, the capital of Ghana is known to have been the breeding ground
for quality rising stars, most of whom have feaure for the various national
team.
The popular field formerly known as
Hearts Park is the home grounds of many juvenile teams, namely Ken Harrison
Babies, Mighty Victory, Cedabs Babies, Red Row Babies, Mighty Cosmos Babies,
Gadafi Babies and also third and second division clubs such as The Gunners
operated by Ali Jarra.
The field is where top stars like
Sam Johnson (Ken Harrison), Peter Ofori Quaye (Ken Harrison), Stephen Appiah
(Mighty Victory), Michael Essien (Mighty Victory, Asamoah Gyan (Mighty Victory/
Cedabs), Emmanuel Clottey (Mighty Victory) and many others were discovered.
The INDAFA League also kept football
players in shape apart from creating the platform for many players to exhibit
their talents after the colts level.
Last week saw Aspire Dreams Academy
storming the INDAFA Park to unearth talents for full development at the Qatar
international sports complex and later transferred as a professional to a
popular football club.
From Saturday September 7th to Wednesday September 11th 704 young footballers drawn
from various
junior high schools and colts clubs reported for the justification exercise.
Coaches Xavi Gisbert from Spain and
Mackenzy Golightly from Ghana led other trainers and scouts to spot best
talents among the 704 players, which was prone to 100, yet on the last day of
the trails about 50 other players reported but they were declared late.
According to Coach Xavi this is the
seventh edition of the Aspire Academy talent hunt in Ghana and other coaches
and scouts were working in other regions, such as Tamale, Cape Coast, and
Kumasi to fish out for very quality and disciplined players.
He said all the Ghanaian players are
very good with an idea of the game of football, but they are searching for
special quality and those players would be cartered for by Aspire Academy for
the rest of their lives.
Mackenzy Golightly known for trying
to contest for the Ghana Football Association Presidency said the programme
which was tried some time ago in the area was not successful, but this year’s
event has been very impressive running for five days and even more kids rushing
to participate or watch.
He shared the sadness of the many
players who thought they had done well yet were not selected by the Spainish
coach and urged them to be disciplined on and off the field of play.
Mackenzy Golightly congratulaedthe
other trainers and scouts who contributed to the success of the programme and
hope next year’s event would be better organized with the introduction of other
sporting disciplines like Athletics as
some of the players do not posseess the football skills but have the strength
and technique to run.
The Aspire Football Project was
introduced to Ghana by former national hockey player and football administrator
Captain Andy Sam and over the years they have identified and sponsored so many
players to Qatar.
Among the recent popular graduates
of Aspire Football is Ghana Under 20 and until recent Black Stars winger Frank
Acheampong.