Posted by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Asante Kotoko, Nana Yaw Amponsah is on a personal mission as he seeks revenge against bitter rivals Hearts of Oak.
Yesterday, Asante Kotoko outdoored their recently selected eight-member management team (Emmanuel Newton Dasoberi, Moses Antwi Benefo, Eric Amoako Twum, Thomas Sevordzi, Nilo Effori, Akua Pokuaa Kwarteng, Dentaa Amoateng, David Obeng Nyarko).
The management team has been given a 3-year-mandate and will work under Nana Yaw Amponsah as he aims to achieve the objectives and target set for him and the Kotoko board members by Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
Speaking at the inauguration, Nana Yaw Amponsah made the aims of the club known to the newly elected members, which is to develop Asante Kotoko into a proper sporting club with the required infrastructure, as well as winning trophies again and doing well in Africa like the club previously did in the 70’s and 80’s.
Making Otumfuo’s message the greater aim, Nana Yaw Amponsah also disclosed is personal ambition; which is to avenge a painful 4-0 defeat inflicted on Asante Kotoko by arch rivals Hearts of Oak on March 15, 2000.
A brace from Ishmael Addo and a goal each by Kenneth Sarpong and Emmanuel Osei Kuffour handed Hearts an emphatic 4-0 victory over the Porcupine Warriors. 20 years on and Kotoko is yet to avenge the painful defeat.
Doing so will not come on a silver platter, but the new Kotoko CEO is taking inspiration from WAFA, who defeated Hearts of Oak 5-0 in the 2016/17 Premier league season.
“Our medium and long term goal is to have a young team. Imagine a WAFA kind of team backed by Asante Kotoko supporters, you can imagine the things we can do. I know we cry that Hearts [of Oak] once beat us 4-0 but WAFA beat them 5-0 when we want to reverse that we need a WAFA kind of team”, he explained.
“We need a solid youth system; that we cannot compromise, football is about the youth. We need to develop youth players who have the Kotoko fabric is embedded in them right from the start”.
The former GFA presidential candidate becomes the second person in Kotoko’s high hierarchy to publicly make such revelation after Mrs. Evelyn Nsiah Asare.
As an ardent supporter of this great Club, this has been one of my greatest worries not because it's to our bitter rivals, but because we've not been able to avenge it.
But this time around, I'm very confident in my boys to do the needful. Faaaaaaaaabulous ♥️ pic.twitter.com/DDFkaGwUN1— Mrs. Evelyn Nsiah Asare Owusu (@thenanaakuagh) June 15, 2020
Time will tell when this dream will become a reality, but as they “Rome wasn’t built on a day”, Nana Yaw Amponsah urged supporters of the club to be patient during the rebuilding process.
“I know that the supporters can be impatient and all that but look, recently, Borussia Dortmund have three players leading their attack and they are 20 years, 17 and 17, genuine age. So we need the young players to build a strong team, and that will only mean the supporters will have to be patient for us to build something solid; Rome was not built in a day”, he emphasised.