By Ken Bediako
Three cheers for former Black Stars striker Willie Klutse; he is a good ambassador for football in general and the Black Stars in particular. This was my verdict after watching his interview on social media about his life story.
Here was a teenage student at West Africa Secondary school in Accra New Town in the early 70s who stopped lessons in class to play football and nearly became a family outcast.
Klutse, playing truancy at his Accra New Town family house apparently displeased his parents to such an extent he was virtually sacked from home. At certain stages he had to perch with friends outside the family house.
As things went on, a close friend very much in the know Klutse’s craze for football gave him the news of a newly formed league club, Juantex of Juapong Textiles Company recruiting young footballers in a “justify your inclusion,” exercise. With the speed of a top sprinter Klutse rushed to Juapong where he luckily impressed the selectors.
That was the beginning of good things to happen to the young ambitious footballer.
Luckily for Klutse, once again Juapong Textiles had business links with Tema based Ghana Textile Printing (GTP) owners of the famous Dumas Boys League club and they decided to transfer him to the Tema club. It was at GTP that he made great strides. Athletically built Klutse became famous for his striking ability. And believe it or not, after barely two seasons he caught the eyes of the national team selectors into the Black Stars group.
Klutse tells of how his name was repeatedly on the radio and in the newspapers. One day, he happily brought home copies of the national newspapers carrying his exploits in the Black Stars group.
It was a family carnival at Accra New Town.
The long and short of it all was that Willie Klutse became a national star. Most importantly he was a member of the Black Stars that won the original Afcon Cup for keeps in 1978. He flew in a helicopter with his team mates to Burma Camp to meet head of state Kutu Acheampong. This was after the Black Stars had beaten Uganda 2-0 to win the cup with Opoku Afriyie scoring both goals.
What impressed me most in the Klutse interview was his appreciation for the national recognition football has given him. He has travelled worldwide at state expense because of football.
Unlike a number of certain retired Ghanaian players who appear ungrateful and keep complaining of state neglect, Klutse believes football has made him what he is now and would advise all ambitious young footballers to be committed and disciplined to enable them reach the top.
“There is no substitute for hard work dedication and self-discipline to achieve success,” he emphasized.
Football has a lot of openings and you need to be disciplined to reap the huge benefits therein he advised the youth.
I was happy he confirmed the story of the 1978 promise of an Estate house each to the Black Stars for winning Afcon 1978
Some estate houses were ready at Dansoman but most of the players wanted the houses in their home town since it was lifetime reward. Unfortunately, when Acheampong was removed from power the successors were not interested to honour the promise. Too bad.
“You can’t cry over spilt milk, we can’t do anything about it now,” he said.
I was really impressed by the way Klutse advised the youth to take to sports, especially football. The opportunities are wide open and you need to focus to enable you reach the top.
It’s this kind of advice that convinced me that Willie Klutse has really matured into a responsible adult who could really be a good ambassador for Ghana football.
It is my hope that he will sooner than later inch near the corridors of the Ghana Football Association to contribute his quota to the progress of the game nationwide.
At this juncture I would like to divert attention small and pay tribute to the nation’s famous sports photographer JZXXXK Ackon who passed away some 16 years ago in 2009. We were that close.
Full name, John Zacharia Xystus Xavis Xuans Kojo Ackom (alias thousand). He was an enigmatic character extremely proud of his rather long initials.
He died in a tragic motor accident on the Winneba highway involving a liquid gas tanker.
He covered numerous state functions as well, including the OAU conference in Accra in 1965.
His passion for sports photography moved him to the National Sports Council (NSC) in 1970 where he headed the newly established photo department. Over the years Ackom successfully built a band of sports pictures that became a reference point for many newspapers and magazines both home and abroad.
Later on he added video coverage of major sporting events to his stock and had a wonderful archive of sporting pictures and events.
On his retirement from the Sports Council in 2006, he helped found Accra based Sports Photo Company that deals in sports photographic advertising around sports stadiums and other sporting facilities.
He also engaged in the production, management and marketing of sports photographs.
He was the official photographer of the Premier League Board (PLB) and travelled nationwide to cover most of the major league matches both in still pictures an in video.
He was in the process of building a sports library of pictures for the PLB when he passed away in that tragic motor accident near Winneba, on March 18, 2009. He was on his way to Accra from Sekondi where he had covered the Premier league match between Sekondi Eleven Wise and Accra Hearts of Oak when the accident happened.
May his soul rest in perfect peace.
Cheers everybody and keep loving sports
