‘Goal against Cameroon in 1993 AYC final, my best ever’ – Augustine Arhinful

Former Ghana striker Augustine Arhinful has mentioned his goal against Cameroon, at the 1993 CAF Africa Youth Championship as his best ever.

For strikers who mostly score a plenty number of goals, it often comes across as a tad tricky for them to choose their best-ever strike.

For Augustine Arhinful this is quite easy. The former Ghana Premier League top scorer has his greatest goal memory still fresh; firmly and securely deposited in his memory bank.

The former Black Stars striker shares how the circumstances behind the goal and the technique deployed make it the obvious choice for him.

The Black Satellites had earlier been beaten 2-0 by Cameroon at the group stage and entered the final match with revenge and fear threatening their chances.

After going ahead 1-0 courtesy Daniel Addo, Augustine Arhinful’s goal cushioned Ghana’s lead and calmed down nerves.

The goal eventually sealed a 2-0 win and booked Ghana a ticket to the 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship in Australia.

Augustine Arhinful relived these fond memories on Joy FM in Accra and vividly described what he terms as the best goal he’s ever netted.

“There are a couple but I think Mauritius 93 when we were playing the final against Cameroon”, he narrated.

“We met Cameroon again in the final, we won 2-0, the first goal was scored by Daniel Addo and I scored the second goal and it was an incredible shot from the edge of the area (the 18 yards on the right side)

“I took the ball turned and shot the ball, and it was like a rocket the ball just zoomed straight into the net”.

“Roger Milla was the head of their delegation, he was sitting there so I just ran to where he was sitting and I did the dance he did in the ’90s when he scored in the world cup..and I was given a yellow card for that”.

“So that goal stands out because that goal had qualified Ghana to our maiden world cup which is the youth tournament in Australia”.

“And most of us had not travelled that far and it was time for us to also go to other continent and see what we could do”.

After starting at Obuasi Goldfields (now Ashgold) Augustine Arhinful’s club football career took to across clubs in Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Turkey and Italy representing clubs like Grasshoppers FC, Borussia Dortmund, Boavista, Venezia, Ankaragücü and Trabzonspor.