An encounter with Ntow Gyan

Former Kotoko player, Ntow Gyan.

It was in the studios of Kokomlemle based FM station Atinka FM. I had gone there with my colleague and soulmate, Bernard Nyankomago Yeboah as panelist on Kofi Asare Brako’s late afternoon sports programme. I met my good friend Kofi Appiah who works there.

As it has always been the case anytime I meet the abrasive, tough-talking Kofi Appiah, we hardly agree on any issue – be it politics or football. It was no surprise then that, even on Kotoko, on which we rarely agree, we still couldn’t find a common ground to live on current developments in the club.

Our argument was intense in his office. All along one man sat down quietly listening to us. I could tell from his body language that, he was enjoyed our exchanges. He didn’t speak. He however seemed interested in our subject as he smartly nodded in affirmation along the line.

                                                

This man was Ntow Gyan – the former Kotoko striker who is presently a CAF License B coach.  Growing up as a Kotoko fan, I heard a lot about Ntow Gyan. I however never had the chance to watch him. As a 12-year-old then, I saw his photos in the Kumapim News and other pro-Kotoko newspapers. I could easily identify him by his dreadlocks. This time his dreadlocks were off.

He joined us on the Atinka FM programme and I didn’t know it was Ntow Gyan until Kofi Asare Brako introduced him. I opened my mouth in awe. Bernard, was equally awestricken. I got out of my seat to take photographs. I then notified him of an interview for Kotoko Express after the show. He humbly accepted my request. Subsequently we had an enlightening chat.

“I remember those days with a lot of joy” he said. “We’ve played football. I mean football!” he exclaimed, explaining the fact that, the quality of football we’ve been fed on domestically in recent years isn’t perhaps that close to what they dished out of football fans decades ago.

“Today’s football is all right but more is also missing” he said. If players and all of us are to do more than we’re doing we could develop fast, he added. Ntow Gyan reiterated how times have changed and how that might have affected Ghana football. He was however quick to add that, we don’t have a hopeless situation as some critics usually want us to believe.

“The past is the past. We can’t always talk about it. We have to look at today; what we can do to make the best of what we have” he said. “It isn’t a desolate situation. The prospects are good. We only have to believe in ourselves and join forces to build Ghana football” he argued.

It’s the reason some of us are learning. I’m into coaching to learn and to contribute my quota. I’ve done the intermediate; the CAF License C and B; and I’m pursuing other coaching courses to build my knowledge of the modern game” he stated.

For the records, Ntow Gyan started his career at Young B. A. United. He moved Techiman 11 Wonders before playing for Tomacan – a team owned by a tomato factory at Wenchi in the 1970s. He graduated to the B. A. United senior team in 1983 but after B. A. United’s relegation, he went to Real Tamale United (RTU) in 1985. He spent three seasons and left for Cote d’Ivoire.

In Cote d’Ivoire, his first club was Sabe-Sports. His exploits at Sabe earned him an invitation to the Ivorian national team but after the disclosure that, he was a Ghanaian and not an Ivorian, immigration officers went looking for him, for which reason he return to B. A. United and Ghana for that matter.

He then came to Kotoko in the 1990/91 season. A debilitating knee injury he sustained on August 24, 1992 in match against Scom-Mikishi in Lubumbashi nearly cut short his career.

He was out for four years. On his comeback in 1996, he joined Okwawu United and later rejoined Kotoko in the 1997/98 season.

“My mother didn’t want me at Kotoko again but Kotoko is in my blood so I came back” he told me. Ntow Gyan went to Petro Sport in Gabon in 1998; Cameroon’s Union Duala in 1999/2000; Mali’s Stade Malian between 2000 and 2002, before ending his career at Olympique Nahouri in Burkina Faso in 2005 after two years there as a player-coach.

As he builds himself for the future, one of Ntow Gyan’s dreams is to coach Kotoko one day. At the moment he’s unattached after parting ways with a division one team in Techiman.