Dong Bortey is a legend

Bernard Dong-Bortey born on 22 September 1982 is a Ghanaian footballer who played for Swedish side Ånge IF.

Bortey began his career 2000 with Ghapoha Readers in Tema. One year later, he moved to Accra Hearts of Oak SC and became an integral part of the "64 Battalion" and a deadly force alongside Charles Asampong Taylor, Ishmael Addo, Emmanuel Osei Kuffour.

Hearts loaned him out in 2002 to Al Wasl FC in Dubai, where he played for 6 months.

He returned in June 2002 to Hearts where he won the league and shared the Top Scorer award with Charles Asampong Taylor.

Nicknamed "Dong Dada Diouf" a reference to Senegalese forward El Hadji Diouf due to a similar style of play and his dyed hair.

International career

Bortey played twenty-seven games for the Ghanaian national football team and scored nine times; the latest game being in the qualifying stage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup He also represented his homeland in the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship in New Zealand, where he played 6 games and scored 3 goals.

What makes him a legend

How do you explain this romantic story to somebody who has never been smitten or struck by that thunderbolt called love?

After all that had happened, Bortey still believed that league was within reach. "We still have the chance to win the league; we are not out of it!" he said.

When others are busy on radio riling the same fans who used to cheer them on and not having any good thing to say about the club that gave them the highest honours that we would remember them for when they die; Dong Bortey comes back to say without malice or spite that it's still possible. That the league is within reach.

A guy we denied the goal king because we wanted him to share with another and took him off in the middle of a game so he wouldn't go on and wear the crown alone.

The one we kicked away when he needed us most still happens to be the one who cares the most.

After telling the whole world he's finished, he still comes back and wishes us well. My King, our prince; my hero, our Superman; my warrior, our soldier; you have proven beyond doubt that you are a proud son of the Oak tree.