Many soccer pundits in Ghana and the world over may
remember Nana Kumi Gyamfi aka Charles Kumi (C. K.) Gyamfi for his coaching prowess
that won Ghana three Cup of Nations trophies in 1963, 1965 and 1982.
It is only the 1978 victory that is not directly
linked to him as a coach.
Others may also remember him for his influential
roles with Kumasi Asante Kotoko, the then Republicans and how he left Kotoko to
form Great Ashantis before joining Accra Standfast and latter, Hearts of Oak.
But I remember Nana Kumi Gyamfi for the few quality encounters
I had with him. Of course, I count myself lucky to have interviewed him in his
North-Kaneshie residence on two different occasions.
In May 2009, he granted me an audience when we went
through his entire life as a player, coach and administrator, and I was amazed
at the number of successes he chalked in the game.
At one point, Nana opened a big box full of medals
and his candid words were simple: “I must tell you that I have forgotten when
and how I got some of these medals; you know it’s been a long time”.
That pushed me to ask him if he had ever dreamt of
writing a book to encapsulate all these numerous successes.
His answer: “I want to outdoor my autobiography as
part of my 80th birthday celebrations”.
His 80th birthday was due in December
2009 but unfortunately, he could not accomplish that dream.
In fact, I was completely shattered when I got the
news that he was in the process of putting his memoirs together – his cherished
dream since 2009 – when he passed on peacefully.
Then, I asked myself why mother Ghana allowed such a
great man to die with all his ideas?
This is a man who told me bluntly that “I carried my
talents from my mother’s womb!”
I remember, Nana said in our special interview that
he started falling in love with soccer when he was six years.
“I started my football career when I was about six
years, I started playing in the junior leagues and in the school and we were
even playing with orange and tennis balls and later we started playing what we
called ‘Gutter to Gutter’. After that we learnt how to head the ball with
tennis ball and it was a competitive game as well.
“I started as a goalkeeper and I realized it was too
dull so I decided to go upfront and fight for the ball so that I can score
goals”, he noted with some sort of nostalgia.
This is a man who totally believed in Ghanaian
coaches. Even at the point of his death, he was still the patron of the
Ghanaian Soccer Coaches Association.
I once asked his opinion about foreign coaches and
he did not mince words at all.
“Going for foreign coaches is not the way. When we
give our Ghanaian coaches the chance, they will do better. They have to learn; in
this case they (FA) have to spend on them to help them take coaching courses
outside. When we went to Libya, nobody gave us a dog chance but we won so I was
thinking that the trend will continue when I left but it was not done.
“People were not happy to see me lead the Black
Stars to the 1963 African Cup but I had the total support of President Kwame
Nkrumah and we won the trophy and defended it in Tunisia. But after that there
was a coup that saw Nkrumah out and the authorities also sacked me”, he
recollected.
I can go on and on and on about my one-on-one
conversation with this great man but I will also like to recount his advice to
the Ghana Football Association (GFA) when I once accompanied President Kwesi
Nyantakyi and some members of the FA to pay a working visit to Nana.
Let me quote his first advice to the GFA at that
time.
“You have to be firm, bold and courageous in your
decision making to ensure that Ghana football gets better and better.
“Ghanaians are fastidious and will always ask for
more so you shouldn’t rest on your oars but strive to achieve a lot of
successes for the nation in general and the FA in particular”
“Stand firm and do the right thing for posterity
will judge us all”
He further stressed that the FA should not entertain
elements of indiscipline if the association wanted to achieve a lot of goals.
Even at that point, his passion for the game of
soccer was not in doubt as he was of the believe that he still had a lot of
knowledge to impact on the game and was always ready to advise the FA if they
called on him.
Nana Kumi Gyamfi lived for the game and surely,
Ghana has lost a true legend!
He came, he saw and he conquered!
May he rest in perfect peace!!!
