The Ghana Premier League has successfully come to its climax, as fate would have it, Tarkwa-based club, Medeama SC have been crowned champions of the league for the first time in their club history.
It looked far-fetched to say they will be crowned champions of the league even though they were touted as one of the favorites by the bookmakers to win the league but they were still miles away from winning the most coveted prize in domestic football.
Two-time champions, Aduana Stars led the pack for most parts of the season, it was their trophy to lose after putting up a splendid performance in the course of the season but a culmination of bad results, player injuries, and loss of form by some of their key players meant that it will take a toll on their championship winning side.
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THE EVANS ADOTEY FACTOR
When the Mosses Parker-led administration decided to part ways with Umar Rabbi after David Duncun had started the season, they settled on one of their trusted pair of technical brains, Evans Adotey. This is a lad that has been at the forefront of the club in recent past editions, serving as an assistant coach from 2013 to 2015. season
During that stint with that club, he managed to help them win the two FA Cup trophies and guided them to a 4th-place finish in the 2012–13 season. Such an enviable feat for an exciting tactical brain. In that period, he chalked important feats, beating Hearts and Kotoko away from home and making Akoon Park a dreadful place for opposing teams to visit, bar Nsoatreman and Bechem United, picked the most points at home, 39 points.
THE UNLUCKY TAG
In the last few seasons, the Tarkwa-based side has come closest to winning the trophy but for reasons beyond their purview they would have to give the league title another shot, it won’t be the first time asking.
In 2018, the Mauve and Yellow side sat at the summit of the table with twenty-seven(27) points after fifteen (15) rounds of games in the league with the hope and belief that it would be their year, the league trophy would finally come home to its Tarkwa fateful and other vested parties but the famous Number 12 expose by the Anas’ and his Tiger Eye PI team brought footballing activities to a grand halt and the ensuing year,2019, the global pandemic COVID-19 will also rear its head and take center stage ravishing everything including the people’s sport, Football.
This meant that any hopes the club harbored were thrusting into thin air, such a demoralizing tendency to befall a championship-chasing side, not once but twice.
HEARTS AND KOTOKO
In the last two decades, Hearts and Kotoko have won seven apiece of the last nineteen trophies that have gone up for competition. This shows their superiority and dominance on the domestic scene, but this year, the story has been different from the usual. The two most glamorous clubs in the country have had a chunk of issues on and off-the-field issues to deal with which severely affected their title hopes. A string of bad match day results, player upheavals due to non-payment of salaries, and coach sacking at some point of the season played a vital role in how the duo performed for most parts of the season which was capitalized on by Medeama SC.
THE SQUAD
The team from Tarkwa has come closest to winning the league at some point in past editions of the league. They recruited the very best on the local scene, Ahmed Toure, Richard Boadu, Justice Blay, Rashid Nortey, Tetteh Zuta, Zakaria Mumuni, Prince Opoku Agyemang, Eric Kwakwa, and others but something changed about their current squad for this season, the over-reliance on house-hold names fizzled out, they resorted to fresh young and hungrier talents to build the team and with the emergence of Derick Fordjour, Darlington Gyanfosu, Manuel Martey, Benjaimen Abaidoo, Theophilus Anobaah, Jonathan Sowah, Felix Kyei, Nana Kofi Babil, coupled with the experience heads in Vincent Atinga, Kwesi Donsu the squad managed to achieve an impossible feat of basking the league trophy ahead off Aduana Stars, Bechem United, Hearts and, Kotoko,
GOLDFIELDS SPONSORSHIP
Football is a capital-intensive sport and anyone close to football knows that it requires a huge financial outlay to sustain the activities of the club in the league. Gracefully, the Mauve and Yellow side is one of the few clubs that have the financial backing of mining giants, Goldfields Ghana Limited. Over the years, the mining company has financially assisted the club in diverse ways to help its activities in the league. Just last year, it pumped a whopping $150,000 into the club, which saw it finish the season in the second spot behind eventual winners, Kotoko but this season, they rose above the odds to seal the top spot, in such a rousing display of football.
In football, they say everything is possible, one thing I have come to learn is that you never rule out the possibility of anything in football, they tried once, they failed, the second they failed and on the third count they basked it, their first league trophy in 14 years since the club was founded and the first from Western Region since Sekondi Hasaacas last won it 1977.
