Strikers must learn the art of scoring — Opoku Afriyie
Former skipper of Kumasi Asante Kotoko and a member of the Black Stars, Opoku Afriyie, has admonished footballers to learn and perfect the art of goal scoring as a way of improving their value and also make the Ghana league more attractive.
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In an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic at his Kumasi base, the football legend gave a damning verdict on Ghana’s topflight league, saying it lacked the “flavour” to attract football fans to the stadiums, primarily because strikers lacked the instincts and art to score goals which was the life blood of the game.
Nicknamed ‘Bayie’ (wizard) in his heyday in recognition of his scoring prowess, the two-time goal-king said attackers needed to spend a lot of time to perfect the art of scoring, explaining that he became a dreaded attacker because he devoted a lot of time to personal training to improve his speed and accuracy in scoring before joining his teammates for regular exercises.
“I won the goal-king titles in 1979 and 1981 and scored not less that 28 goals on both occasions. In 1976, it was Dan Owusu of Tano Bofoakwa who beat me to the title after scoring 28 goals while I scored 27 goals,” recounted Afriyie, who questioned how players could score less than 20 goals in the Ghana Premier League yet managed to win the top scorer’s prize in recent times.
He bemoaned the quality of skilful attackers with great scoring instincts which he said was the principal reason for the decline in football standards and its attendant lack of interest in the domestic league compared to the past. for instance in the 1980 season, he said, he scored 26 goals but still lost the top scorer’s award to the late Emmanuel Quarshie.
“In those days we always converted our chances into goals, so it made the league very competitive and attractive to football fans who always filled the stands during league matches.
“Our ability to convert many of our chances stemmed from the fact that we learnt the art of goal scoring not only from our coaches, but also from our senior players such as Kuuku Dadzie, Dan Oppong and Yaw Sam at Kotoko who realised that my speed with the ball was unparalleled, and taught me that as striker I was a king in the penalty box, so there was the need to be calm while looking for an opening to place the ball.”
“I was aware that I was gifted with the speed of light as a striker, but I needed to polish my striking skills by understudying my seniors,” explained the retired footballer who won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1978 and 1982.
