It is an unconventional path to take but having Rudolf Mensah emerge as the Home-Based Player of the Year Category Winner at this year’s Ghana Football Awards just feels right after the thunderous season the former Liberty Professionals player had at Swedru All Blacks.
Delivering 27 goals in 30 games and leading All Blacks back to the Ghana Premier League (GPL) after a 16 year hiatus deserves to be awarded with the top honour even in the face of competition from GPL contemporaries.
Having the GPL’s top goal scorer, Stephen Amankona, who rightly so, has been nominated in the same category, score 15 goals (not even half of) a 34 league game schedule just doesn’t sit right as winner for such an award.
Aside Razak Simpson’s run with Nations FC that got him to be quite a regular in the Black Stars, none deserves to be recognized as the best player on the Ghanaian football scene than Rudolf Mensah.
Tonight’s award show comes prior to the final of this year’s MTN FA Cup Final that has qualification to next season’s CAF Confederations Cup on the line and through Mensah, the two events are somewhat connected.
Prior to the start of the just ended football campaign, Mensah, then a free agent, signed for All Blacks after playing for Golden Kick FC which is the team Kumasi Asante Kotoko take on in the FA Cup final at the University of Ghana Stadium.
⚔️ The Grand Finale Awaits! 🏆
Golden Kick SC 🆚 Asante Kotoko 🔥
🗓️ Sunday, June 15, 2025.
🕔 Kick-off: 5PM
📍 University of Ghana Stadium#MTNFACup | @MTNGhana pic.twitter.com/jyPGWRNMO4— MTN FA CUP (@MTNFACupGH) June 9, 2025
While Golden Kick are a win from delivering one of the biggest upsets in the history of the competition, Kotoko on the other hand are just looking to end what has been a chaotic, sad, deflating and quite complicated campaign on a solid note.
A great way to end the season in Kotoko’s case would be to win the GPL title and compete in the CAF Champions League but with Bibiani Gold Stars stealing that thunder, Kotoko would have to do with a solid end to the campaign by winning the FA Cup.
Gold Stars secured their first ever league title win on the final day of competition that had Kotoko getting bossed around the Nii Adjei Kraku II pitch to the tune of a 3-1 loss to Vision FC. That loss was described by Kotoko’s interim head coach Abdul Karim Zito as a wakeup call ahead of the FA Cup final and in unconventional way, that loss gave Kotoko all the ingredients to bag a win on Sunday.
Golden Kick just like Vision FC, play with young pacey players who have relentless energy and are seemingly fearless after taking down the likes of Accra Hearts of Oak en route to the final. After taking the lead against Vision FC, Kotoko looked gassed down the line and paid for it by conceding three goals with all the goals coming in the second half.
Kotoko left full back Patrick Asiedu had a nightmare of a game with Vision FC targeting his end as a weak link and attacking constantly. This should inform Karim Zito’s preparation for the game particularly his player’s levels of stamina while providing enough motivation to bag a title this season to play in next season’s African competition.
Had Kotoko won the GPL considering the circumstances that surrounded the final round of league ties, the lads surely wouldn’t be motivated to stretch themselves in the FA Cup Final after winning the “bigger” trophy and qualifying to play in the more prestigious of the two CAF interclub competitions.
A campaign that promised so much has been an underwhelming one for the Porcupine Warriors who had to grapple with playing quite a significant stretch of games away from the Baba Yara Stadium for starters.
Embroiled in yet another race to please CAF’s eye, the stadium was shut for renovation ahead of Ghana’s 2025 AFCON qualifiers, Kotoko had to relocate to the Len Clay Stadium in Obuasi to play their games.
Then there was the sham of playing in the Capital City Africa Cup that was a flat out mess as the visas of several players got bounced forcing players from Medeama SC to be roped in at some point and all this happened before two Kotoko players disappeared in Washington and haven’t been found at the time of writing.
Kareem Yoouef Yagoub and Esmat Mohamed, both Sudanese, left Kotoko’s hotel in Washington and in the process delivered another Ghana sports related disappearance in a foreign country at the time Ghanaian para-athletes had disappeared in Norway.
Dr. Prosper Narteh Ogum delivered the GPL title as head coach in his first run out with Kotoko and looked primed to do same in his second season in his second stint but a second batch of a four game winless run led to his dismissal though Kotoko were still firmly in the race to win the league title and had booked their place in the FA Cup semifinals.
Dismissing a coach who was on the verge of winning two major titles with little over a month to the end of the campaign signaled how turbulent and tense the situation between Dr. Ogum and the Kotoko board was behind closed doors.
Somewhere between Kotoko players absconding on foreign soil and Dr. Ogum’s sack, there was the very unfortunate incident of popular Kotoko fan Francis “Pooley” Frimpong getting stabbed and dying from the wound he sustained during the attack.
During a heated league tie against Nsoatreman in Nsoatre, that had players get into multiple bust ups, the outspoken fan became the latest victim of hooliganism that has plagued the GPL for several years.
With their ego checked by Vision FC allied to them having more quality players and backed by a veteran coach who won the title with Dreams FC, winning the MTN FA Cup represents a big silver lining to multiple dark clouds for Kumasi Asante Kotoko this season but the chance to also get back to competing in Africa and give themselves a shot at representing Ghana at the next FIFA Club World Cup and benefitting from the financial windfall that comes with it.
