Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Asante Kotoko they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mohamed Camara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
That is the business done at Asante Kotoko until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Asante Kotoko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. WAFA moved on, Walid Fuseini reports back to Asante Kotoko, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Timothy Zechariah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Hearts of Oak; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Hasaacas will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Asante Kotoko were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Position 2, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Asante Kotoko they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Asante Kotoko have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A mark of 7.73 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The offer from PWD Bamenda for Selasie Bakai was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Asante Kotoko have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abdullahi Lawal is living that version at Asante Kotoko, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Philip Amoh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Asante Kotoko have done the hard part with Stade Malien, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Kwame Opoku was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The name of Selasie Bakai has come up in conversations Asante Kotoko were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
SquadWords at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Asante Kotoko can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Asante Kotoko will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Asante Kotoko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Kwame Opoku will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Asante Kotoko escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Asante Kotoko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Asante Kotoko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marked 8.57 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Two goals and a mark of 9.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Asante Kotoko they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Asante Kotoko.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jeffrey Nuhu, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A brace, and Kwame Opoku takes the afternoon — 9.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kwame Opoku provided it, and the 9.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Asante Kotoko they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Emmanuel Antwi and Asante Kotoko agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Timothy Zechariah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Emmanuel Antwi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.87 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Position 2, 36 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 14 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emmanuel Kotei will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Inusah Adam will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Asante Kotoko they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kwame Opoku and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Morifing Donzo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Asante Kotoko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Kwame Opoku was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrick Asiedu has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Kwame Opoku takes the afternoon — 9.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kwame Opoku provided it, and the 9.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.94 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Asante Kotoko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Kwame Opoku on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Asante Kotoko and BA All Stars.
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Position 2, 23 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Asante Kotoko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with WAFA the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Asante Kotoko will enjoy reviewing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Asante Kotoko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Emmanuel Antwi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 50. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Philip Amoh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kwame Opoku was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
7 matches without defeat, and then Hearts of Oak. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Emmanuel Antwi has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 39. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Asante Kotoko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match7 Oct 2026
Inusah Adam wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Inusah Adam found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and BA All Stars went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Asante Kotoko they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.91 beside his name.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Asante Kotoko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 1‑0 win over Heart of Lions, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joseph Amoah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kwame Opoku and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothy Zechariah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Kwame Opoku was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Asante Kotoko will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Philip Amoh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kwame Opoku was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Timothy Zechariah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Asante Kotoko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emmanuel Kotei will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Morifing Donzo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Asante Kotoko people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Solomon Nsoh had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Asante Kotoko is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Timothy Zechariah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Morifing Donzo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joseph Amoah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kwame Opoku and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. WAFA have kept their man, and Asante Kotoko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Asante Kotoko know which stage they are at.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Asante Kotoko are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Asante Kotoko people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Bernard Somuah was one of the reasons people came, and $360.0K does not replace that by itself.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Selasie Bakai had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Asante Kotoko can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Asante Kotoko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Kwame Opoku was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sa'ad Tijjani is living that version at Asante Kotoko, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad24 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Asante Kotoko are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Asante Kotoko people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Timothy Zechariah has just signed for Asante Kotoko, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SuperSport United have kept their man, and Asante Kotoko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Asante Kotoko have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal with Hearts of Oak is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Kwame Opoku and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
$2.2M was the most the club would pay and Hull City were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Milton Keynes Dons have kept their man, and Asante Kotoko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Bernard Somuah has come up in conversations Asante Kotoko were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Antwi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ikorodu City have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.