Asante Kotoko youngster Joseph Amoako completes 7-month loan move to Swedish club Helsinborgs
Highly-rated Kumasi Asante Kotoko attacker, Joseph Amoako is set to join Swedish top-flight club Helsinborgs for the 2022 season.
Amoako is expected to join the Scandinavian club on an initial loan of 7 months with an option to sign permanently at the end of the season.
That’s right, just right. All papers are signed, but it is of course a process with the Swedish Migration Board, so before it is a full hundred we will not go out and present him. But everything is so clear that we are working to get him here as quickly as possible”, sports director Andreas Granqvist in an interview.
The deal is a one-year loan with a call option and Granqvist is pleased to welcome the 19-year-old to Helsingborg.
“An insanely fast player who is very good at beating his opponent one on one, and two good feet. It is an exciting young talent from Ghana”, says the sports director.
Joseph Amoako will be Helsingborgs IF’s fifth new acquisition before the season. The Ghanaian International has been limited to small game time.
Having appeared to have earned a starting XI place under Prosper Narteh Ogum after starting the first two Ghana Premier League games, Amoako was dropped to the bench after failing to impress.
At the start of the season, Amoako saw his place on the right side taken over by another youngster Isaac Oppong who made heavy impacts with his substitution minutes.
Oppong assisted and scored 3 and 1 respectively from his first two subs before taking over the starting place from Amoako in week three while Oppong netted a stunner at Bibiani against Gold Stars.
Oppong’s accumulated performance sidelined Amoako to the bench completely where the later usually comes in as sub this time.
However, with Cameroonian forward Georges Mfegue walking into the team later, Amoako’s game time continually diminished. Mfegue has become untouchable from the right flank since making his first full start for Kotoko against Karela United at Grosby Awuah Park.
With Amoako, Oppong and Mfegue fighting for the right flank, Mfegue has always been Ogum’s preferred candidate as Oppong competes with Amankona at the opposite position.
The dynamics always leave Amoako on the bench and at times fails to make the final 18-man squad for match day.
However, his talent from his first two games for Kotoko made a strong case alerting Swedish side Helsingborgs who reportedly have scouted Amoako before the Ghanaian even joined Kotoko at the beginning of this season.
Helsingborgs and Asante Kotoko have hostile attachment in the transfer market after the two parties failed to reach agreement for Abdul Fatawu Safiu in 2019.
Fatawu later swerved Helsingborgs to join Trelleborgs FF where he scored 11 goals in 47 games. Helsingborgs and Asante Kotoko could use Amaoko’s deal to establish friendship for future transfers with Helsingborgs still having the likes of Mfegue, Mbella, Stephen Amankona and Abdul Ganiyu to sign from Kotoko subsequently.
