2016 has shaped up to be a year that has claimed lives of personalities across the world. Ghana has been no exception, losing many figures including a share of some of the country’s sporting greats.
Boxing and football were most affected as legendary Ghanaian boxing trainer Godwin Nii Dzanie Kotey aka coach Alloway and Fred Osam Duodu passed on.
Coach Alloway as Nii Dzanie Kotey was affectionately called, was noted for churning out Ghana’s best boxers, Azumah Nelson, Joshua Clottey and Joseph Agbeko.
There was yet another big loss for the boxing fraternity as Coach Emmanuel Tagoe .ak.a. Akese, trainer of Emmanuel Tagoe died two months after Alloway’s demise.
In the football fraternity, the last three coaches who etched their names in Ghana’s footballing history died.
Fred Osam Duodu, Ben Koufie and Emmanuel Afranie all passed on into glory. Osam Duodu, the only coach to have won the AFCON for Ghana after C.K. Gyamfi died in Ocober.
Ben Koufie died aged 84 having represented Ghana as a player, a coach and administrator.
He also led Asante Kotoko to the Africa Club Championship in 1971 and Great Olympics to the semi-finals a year later.
E.K Afranie died after an ambulance conveying him to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital got involved in a fatal accident.
Uriah Asante, one of the most talented players to have graced the local scene in the last half a decade, died of cardiac arrest at only 24.
They may be gone for eternity but to us, they still live with us as their works here on earth will forever reverberate in our hearts.
Source: www.viasat.com.gh
