I paid my own transfer fee to join Asante Kotoko – Ex-Ghanaian international Thomas Boakye reveals

Former Asante Kotoko forward Thomas “Zion Train” Boakye has revealed how desperate he was to join the Porcupine Warriors which made him foot his own transfer fee to join the club.

Boakye played for Asante Kotoko between the '80s and early ’90s, where he formed a deadly pair of Thomas Boakye ‘Zion Train’ and Joe Debrah ‘Afriki Joe’, making Asante Kotoko a force to reckon with.

Thomas Boakye is blessed with tremendous speed and goal-scoring prowess which saw him win the top scorer award in the 1990/91 Ghana Division One League.

According to Boakye, while playing for Cornerstone, he was keen on donning the jersey of Asante Kotoko but had to play for the Kum Apem Stars for a short stint due to the rule which prevented players of Cornerstone from moving straight to Kotoko.

Speaking to Dan Kwaku Yeboah TV, Boakye mentioned that due to how Kotoko fed on Cornerstone for players, the then Asantehene came up with an order that players couldn’t join Kotoko because it made the team weak while Kotoko kept growing.

“Since I was a player for Cornerstone by then and I wanted to play for Asante Kotoko, it was difficult for me to join due to the order from the Asantehene. I made a stopover at Kum Apem Stars for a short so I could be able to join Asante Kotoko but when it was time for me to leave Kum Apem Stars, it because a struggle because they demanded some cash before I left”,

“I was loved by many and because of that, I met this man who told me he wanted me to play for Asante Kotoko and before I left, he gave me money which I used to pay my transfer fee to Allan Gema of Cornerstone to enable me to Kotoko. I traveled back to Accra to wait for Asante Kotoko. It was there I met Coach Malik Jabir and he was surprised I had to pay my own transfer fee. We finalize everything on Thursday and Coach Jabir gave me my debut game against Hearts of Oak on Sunday”, he added.

Boakye played for all the youth national teams (U17,20 and 23) before joining the Black Stars where he was named the West African Best Player in a four-nation tournament in Liberia in 1993.

He also had stints in Germany for  FC Remscheid, Oberliga Rheinland‑Pfalz/Saar, NOFV-Oberliga Mitte, and Hallescher FC.

Currently based in Mainz, Germany, Thomas Boakye, a now-ordained reverend is married with kids. 

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