Obed Appiah [centre] has earned a 6-month trial contract with premier league club Ashgold
The maiden edition of the the Betway Talent Search initiative ended on Friday August 26, 2017 with Obed Appiah from Western Region being declared the winner.
The 18-year-old attacking midfielder was settled on as the winner after one week of intensive camping where the 18 finalists were taken through training drills and also got equipped with knowledge in contract signing and first aid dispensation.
Speaking to pressmen after he was declared winner, an elated Obed paid glowing tributes to Betway for coming up with an initiative geared towards the development of talents and also lauded the efforts of the coaches led by former Black Stars skipper, Stephen Appiah.
The left-footed midfielder who idolizes James Rodriguez promised to eschew complacency and take advantage of the opportunity offered by Betway to establish himself as one of Ghana's finest footballers.
"I'm very happy to have won this competition and I want to thank Betway for giving me and the other players this huge opportunity and also want to thank our coaches who have thought us quintessential lessons that will go a long way to help our footballing career. The onus lies on me now to work and prove to people that this was no fluke", Obed remarked.
Stephen Appiah who happens to be the icon of the project also commended Betway and called on corporate bodies to emulate the initiative since football offers a lot of mileage and cash to the country.
Tornado as he is affectionately called, praised the players for displaying great talents that made it difficult for the technical team to select the eventual winner. He also expressed hope that the 18-finalists would become great footballers for the country.
"Once again, I want to thank Betway for giving me the opportunity to be part of this initiative and also want to thank the other coaches for a great deal of work done in the last seven weeks. To the players, I want you all to know that you are winners so go out there and make us proud".
"I also want to use this platform to call on other companies to emulate Betway and help develop the talents we have in the country. We always talk about cocoa and gold as the country's foremost sources of revenue but trust me football has the potential to bring us more money than cocoa and gold", Appiah said.
The Betway Talent Search project began seven weeks ago with tryouts session in four regions after which 18 players were picked for a one-week camping at the Lizzy's Sports complex.
Obed Appiah has earned a 6-month trial contract with premier league club Ashgold while Daniel Amaning and Mukala Ahmed have been offered a 3-month and 1-month trial contract with Ashgold for placing second and third respectively.
