On this day 5 May 1969 (Exactly 50 years ago) Former Asante Kotoko and Ghana winger Baba Yara died at the age of 33.
BACKGROUND
On March 24, 1963, Republikans played Volta Heroes at Kpandu, winning 5 – 0. On their way back to Accra, their bus was involved in an accident at Kpeve in the Volta Region. Yara, the ace footballer, was paralysed following injuries he sustained in the accident.
Eyewitness accounts said the 23- seater bus skidded of the road in a curve in a slippery road and hit an embankment. Yara, seated near the main door, was thrown out of the bus and he might have been trampled by his colleagues in the stampede to get out of the bus. Twelve other players, Agyemang Gyau, Kofi Pare, E. C. Oblitey, Dodoo Ankrah, Shitta, Edward Boateng, Carl Lokko, Wiliam Gibirine, Otto Odametey, S. Y. Tetteh, Salifu Musa and Dodoo Quartey sustained slight injuries. They were sent to Ho Hospital from where they were flown to the 37 Military Hospital in Accra. Most of them were discharged within a few days.
Yara, accompanied by Dr R. O. Addae, surgical specialist from the 37 Military Hospital was flown to England where he was treated at the famous Stoke Mandeville Hospital for spinal injuries.
A week later, LA Ronde Night Club, a popular joint in Accra, presented Yara’s wife, Patience, with an air ticket to visit her husband in UK. Interestingly, the return ticket had been won by Yara two weeks before the accident when he was chosen as the best dressed gentleman in a competition organised by the night club.
Initial reports from Stoke Mandeville Hospital said there was the possibility of the colourful football star ‘gaining a reasonable recovery within a period of four to six months.’ This was not to happen and on August 14 1963, Yara returned home in a wheelchair. After a quiet life, the ‘King of Wingers’ died on May 5,1969.
On this day 5 May 1966 (Exactly 53 years ago) Borussia Dortmund of West Germany won the 6th European Cup Winner’s Cup against Liverpool of England 2-1 in Glasgow
Goals Scored:
Dortmund
Siegfried Hold(62)
Reinhard Libuda (109)
Liverpool
Roger Hunt (68)
On this day 5 May 2012 (Exactly 7 years ago) Chelsea won a dramatic FA Cup final as they beat Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley.
Ramires fired Chelsea into an early lead and Didier Drogba doubled their advantage just minutes into the second-half, in so doing became the first player ever to score in four different finals.
On this day 5 May 2018 (Exactly a year ago) Former Manchester United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson suffered a brain haemorrhage and was hospitalised.
By George ‘Alan Green’ Mahamah
