Kumasi Asante Kotoko to start youth team recruitment this month – Nana Yaw Amponsah
www.athleticshour.com | Kumasi Asante Kotoko | Nana Yaw Amponsah | Ghana Football
Nana Yaw Amponsah has stated that the Asante Kotoko youth team will begin training this month (January 2022). Kumasi Asante Kotoko to start youth team recruitment this month – Nana Yaw Amponsah.
Asante Kotoko owner Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has entrusted the Board of Directors with forming a youth squad and a women’s team before their three-year mandate expires, in an attempt to influence the direction and adopt a new model.
According to Nana Yaw Amponsah, the young team is the most important part of any football team in the world, and they plan to start it this month.
āGazale and David went to Southampton to get the DNA we want to use so we have to start the recruitment. We wanted to start last December but we paused but there were many activities. You know Kotoko fans, whatever youād do, the first team results matter to them than anything, if that doesnāt go well, no matter what you do, no one will appreciate so we had to halt certain thing but we will begin with the recruitment this month,ā he said in an interview with USA-based Kotoko Focus TV.
āWe have the youth team at heart because look at Oppong, Agyapong today, Clinton Opoku, you could see that the youth can play and play well so imagine these boys had been around the Kotoko ranks for three years or two years and have had a feel of the Kotoko spirit, the demands of the fans and they are accustom to, it will be easier for them to play so all the talents we will get across the country and elsewhere [for the senior team], we will try and bring them into the youth team for them to have a feel [of Kotoko culture], then acclimatize before we can promote themā
āAlso, we want to transfer more youth team players to sustain the first team because an academy like Right to Dream Academy can transfer a player for 2 million dollars, how much more Kotoko academy?, he quizzed. We have a bigger name than them so itās part of our plans but all balls down to finances so I am appealing to the fans to help us achieve our aim,ā he ended.
Nana Yaw Amponsah and his management team, who have a three-year mandate with one year already completed, think that set the pace with the youth and women’s teams will make Kotoko the first elite team in Ghana to implement such a strategy.
Francis Akwaffo, Gabriel Opoku Ware, Eric Nii Baah, and Tony Yeboah are among the players that have come through the Asante Kotoko junior system.