Aspire Football at Indafa Park

The INDAFA Park at Mamprobi, a

suburb of Accra, the capital of Ghana is known to have been the breeding ground

for quality rising stars, most of whom have feaure for the various national

team.

The popular field formerly known as

Hearts Park is the home grounds of many juvenile teams, namely Ken Harrison

Babies, Mighty Victory, Cedabs Babies, Red Row Babies, Mighty Cosmos Babies,

Gadafi Babies and also third and second division clubs such as The Gunners

operated by Ali Jarra.

The field is where top stars like

Sam Johnson (Ken Harrison), Peter Ofori Quaye (Ken Harrison), Stephen Appiah

(Mighty Victory), Michael Essien (Mighty Victory, Asamoah Gyan (Mighty Victory/

Cedabs), Emmanuel Clottey (Mighty Victory) and many others were discovered.

The INDAFA League also kept football

players in shape apart from creating the platform for many players to exhibit

their talents after the colts level.

Last week saw Aspire Dreams Academy

storming the INDAFA Park to unearth talents for full development at the Qatar

international sports complex and later transferred as a professional to a

popular football club.

From Saturday September 7th to Wednesday September 11th 704 young footballers drawn

from various

junior high schools and colts clubs reported for the justification exercise.

Coaches Xavi Gisbert from Spain and

Mackenzy Golightly from Ghana led other trainers and scouts to spot best

talents among the 704 players, which was prone to 100, yet on the last day of

the trails about 50 other players reported but they were declared late.

According to Coach Xavi this is the

seventh edition of the Aspire Academy talent hunt in Ghana and other coaches

and scouts were working in other regions, such as Tamale, Cape Coast, and

Kumasi to fish out for very quality and disciplined players.

He said all the Ghanaian players are

very good with an idea of the game of football, but they are searching for

special quality and those players would be cartered for by Aspire Academy for

the rest of their lives.

Mackenzy Golightly known for trying

to contest for the Ghana Football Association Presidency said the programme

which was tried some time ago in the area was not successful, but this year’s

event has been very impressive running for five days and even more kids rushing

to participate or watch.

He shared the sadness of the many

players who thought they had done well yet were not selected by the Spainish

coach and urged them to be disciplined on and off the field of play.

Mackenzy Golightly congratulaedthe

other trainers and scouts who contributed to the success of the programme and

hope next year’s event would be better organized with the introduction of other

sporting disciplines like Athletics as

some of the players do not posseess the football skills but have the strength

and technique to run.

The Aspire Football Project was

introduced to Ghana by former national hockey player and football administrator

Captain Andy Sam and over the years they have identified and sponsored so many

players to Qatar.

Among the recent popular graduates

of Aspire Football is Ghana Under 20 and until recent Black Stars winger Frank

Acheampong.