Farewell, Herbert Addo
Lazoo, and he will respond Lazoo, Lazoo!
That was how Herbert Obuobi Addo was known in football circles but tomorrow, that feeling of warmness and comradeship will assume a somber mood when the football family, led by the president of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), gather to pay their final respect and tribute to the late national coach who died last March after a short illness.
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The programme for his final journey begins and ends at his home at Oyarifa, Addo Farms, where he will be laid in state for filing past, as well as the burial service, before being conveyed to his hometown, Aburi for burial at the Methodist Church Cemetery. The final funeral rites will follow immediately at his Addo Farms residence after the burial.
The loss of Herbert Addo, does not just add up to the number of technical brains Ghana football has lost within the past two years, but has robbed the nation of one with the knack for development of both clubs and players.
Born on June 24, 1951 in Accra, the Aburi Konkonduri native spent over 40 years of his productive life in football. He coached over 15 different clubs in his career, a feat many would be jealous of.
He was a Physical Education tutor by profession, but like most PE teachers in those times, their love for football drove them to take up full time jobs and develop as coaches.
“In one of his few personal interviews, he described coaching as his ‘calling’ and the ability to impart knowledge and transform players his ‘profession.’
“From the training I had and after so many years doing the same thing but in different ways, I have to accept that coaching is my calling. I have tried to walk away several times and concentrate on farming, but it never worked,” he said then.
He did not just coach. He was a winning coach, as he grabbed the Ghana Premier League on two different occasions with two different teams -- Hearts of Oak (2000) and Aduana Stars (2010). The other coach to achieve that was the late E.K Afranie.
Herbert Addo also won the WAFU Cup with Sekondi Hasaacas (1982) and the defunct Ghapoha (1997).
Despite his quiet disposition, often coming across as a shy or reserved person, Lazoo was affable, and would often crack jokes that could leave people in stitches, but he was a highly principled man and stood his ground, on things he was convinced about, no matter the consequence. He knew what to say and how to say it and, thus, was a friend of many sports reporters.
He was a pioneer of the Christ the King School in Accra, and went to England when he was 10 years to continue his education.
Education in England saw him go through the Holmewood House School,Lancing College for university education as well as the Avery Hill College of Education, where he specialised as a PE and English tutor after which he taught in England for a while, before returning to Ghana to continue that job until he finally switched to coaching.
For some inexplicable reason, he was never referred to as Coach Addo, but rather ‘Coach Herbert Addo’ and he would respond with a smile.
A great brain in football has fallen and it will be hard to find a replacement so candid, dedicated and devoted to the job.