Over the last couple of years, the mantra by people close to the football circles is for the country to get back to basics and invest in youth football to revive the ailing fortunes of Ghana in Africa and world football.
Youth football, it appears, is the only way to return to the old days of dominance – and one man has decided to champion a similar cause with the birth of the Kenpong Football Academy.
The club, which was founded and is bankrolled by Kennedy Agyapong, popularly known as Kenpong, is fast becoming the yardstick as far as running an academy is concerned.
With a vast financial outlay already splashed on branding, outfit, feeding and housing, the biggest financial commitment has gone into the technical set-up of the academy.
The team, which is based in Winneba in the Central Region, is led by a crack technical team that includes former Black Stars coach Kwasi Appiah and former GFA Technical Director Francis Oti Akenteng. Kwasi Appiah is the head coach while Oti Akenteng is the director of football development for the ambitious football academy.
Kwasi Appiah, it would be recalled, is the first Ghanaian to qualify the Black Stars to the World Cup after guiding the team to the 2014 edition in Brazil. He was a former Ghana captain and defender and also captained Asante Kotoko.
Other legends on the technical team include former Black Stars defender Frimpong Manso. Frimpong Manso is regarded by many who saw him play as one of the best defenders the country has ever produced, and he is expected to bring his rich experience to bear on the team.
The main objective of the academy is to teach young players how to play attractive football in order to meet world standards.
In the next few years, the academy hopes to produce players for all the top clubs in Ghana, the national teams and the best clubs in the world.
