Ugandan International George Abege- ‘Asante Kotoko is not a big club in Africa’ amid lots of loopholes for GPL side to cover
Asante Kotoko former striker George Abege has blasted the Ghana Premier League outfits over poor structure, describing them as sleeping giants in African football with many loopholes to address.
Abege, 27, landed in Ghana to fight for Kotoko under Kjetil Zachariassen after completing a big money move from Kenyan Premier League side Kariobangi Sharks in July 2019.
But the Ugandan International failed adapting to life at the Porcupine Warriors not finding back of net in the 2019/2020 CAF Champions League in what was his two starts against Kano Pillars in Nigeria and Etoile Sportive du Sahel in Ghana.
Then boss, Zachariassen was fired for his poor guidance leading to the elimination of the Ghanaian side from the Champions League by Tunisian side Etoile Sportive and the Confederation Cup by San Pedro.
Despite Zachariassen’s departure, Abege could have still stayed and impress new boss Maxwell Konadu– who replaced Porcupine’s former manager Zachariassen.
After failing to impress Konadu, Abege was finally shown the exit door as Kotoko took step to replace the former Kenyan Premier League star with William Opoku Mensah.
Abege has long distanced himself from Kotoko remaining silence on issues that led to termination of his 3-year signed contract just six months into the contract.
The Ugandan International told reporters that Asante Kotoko look big and admirable from a distance but there are lots of loopholes against the club’s progress.
“Not really Kotoko is a big club. There are some loopholes in Kotoko. But from outside, if you look at the club from a distance you can admire it lot”, the Ugandan told Kumasi based Radio Station Wontumi FM.
“On the contrary, once you go deep inside, you will find out that there are lots of loopholes.”
The 27-year-old forward advised his former side to invest in youth football and give club’s youth whenever they graduates the time to shine in Kotoko.
“Why am I saying this, because they need to invest a lot in youth football. If you look at their U20, they’re only few people, U17 never existed when I was there and they don’t give enough time to those youth players to develop and play for Kotoko in one, two or three years after graduation.
“Football is not spoken, football is played on the pitch and not at the office nor the road side. So whatever you do on the pitch will determine whether what you’re doing was right from outside or not because what they display on the pitch shows that Kotoko is not big enough,” the former Sharks man concluded.
Arguably, Kotoko is one of the biggest clubs in Africa but are gradually fading out against the test of time, relegating them to the background in the pecking order against the likes of Zamalek, TP Mazembe and Al Ahly.
But a bold step has been made as club headquarters Manhyia Palace has set up a new board of directors to restore the club’s lost glory on the African continent.
The ‘board’ knee making a significant impact in next season’s CAF Champions League with a least reaching the group stages of the African club elite tournament for the first time in 14 years.
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