Reflections: Let’s celebrate C. K. Gyamfi
It was with a heavy heart that I received the news of the death of Charles Kumi Gyamfi early last week. Even though C K, as he was popularly known, died at the comparatively ripe old age of 85, it still came as a shock to me.
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When I saw him on the television during the funeral of Jones Attuquayefio recently, I thought he had grown very old. He had not been seen much in public. What I did not know was that, CK was probably at the funeral of one of his “boys” to bid farewell to those who knew him. Many at the event thought he was on his way out. But how soon nobody knew.
Gyamfi was certainly a football icon. But he was bigger than that. He gave all his time to football and he must be seen as a great Ghanaian, a nationalist and a patriot who contributed immensely towards the development of sports in Ghana.
Those of us who followed CK from his early days cannot but be amazed at his humility and readiness to go the extra mile to achieve results without entangling himself in any controversial issues.
Ohene Djan and CK
Personally, I will remember him as the last of the tripod that catapulted Ghana into the pinnacle of African football in the early 60s. If Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah found it convenient to put Ohene Djan in charge of Ghana sports, the celebrated sports administrator also found it expeditious to put Ghana football in the hands of CK.
The symmetry worked perfectly well and the result was the whirlwind fashion in which our football moved in that memorable period when it was a joy to be a Ghanaian as far as sports was concerned. That is why we must not only mourn the passing away of a colossus but we must celebrate the glorious, fruitful and exemplary life of a great Ghanaian. He deserves to be given a state burial.
By now, the young ones might have read a lot about the achievements of CK. But few know about what he achieved for Mother Ghana and how he won a lot of respect for Ghana when he coached in Somalia and Kenya in the 1980s.
On the day his death was announced, I asked a young Ghanaian who has just finished his national service what he knew about CK. He replied that he learnt he was a footballer or a coach. I asked him if he knew Ghana won the Nations Cup in 1963 and 1965, the only country to have done so, back to back at that time, and if he knew CK was the coach and also led Ghana to victory in 1982 in Libya; the young man could only smile. He didn’t know.
CK’s background
CK was born to an Akuapem man, Nana Kumi Bredo I, Chief of Okorasi in the Akuapem Traditional Area and a Ga woman called Diana Dodoowaa Dodoo in Accra on December 4, 1929. He was certainly an Accra boy despite the fact that he lived briefly at his father’s village.
Gyamfi showed qualities of a future star at the Accra Royal School. However, it was in Koforidua, after his education at Accra Royal School that he joined Koforidua Mighty Sailors in 1948. That was the starting point of his long and successful career. But after only a year he crossed over to Cape Coast and joined Mysterious Dwarfs.
The breakthrough for CK came in 1949 when he was poached by Kumasi Asante Kotoko barely after he had settled down in Cape Coast in 1949. That was when the meteoric rise of Gyamfi started.
Only 21 years old, CK was picked for the Gold Coast XI that toured England and Ireland in 1951, where he played barefooted before bewildered soccer fans in UK. It was when the team returned home that the idea of playing in boots gathered momentum.
Drama in Kumasi
There was a lot of drama in the career of CK when he sojourned in Kumasi and played for Asante Kotoko. Even though an Accra man of Akuapim origin, he led a rebellion in Kotoko when he and a few players broke away from the club and formed Great Ashantis Football Club in 1954.
It was a momentous occasion in Kumasi during this period. Football was the lifeblood of the Garden City and majority of the people were ready to die for Kotoko. Kumasi Cornerstones was a rival club to Kotoko but the club did not pose any threat to the Porcupine Warriors. Many in Kumasi saw Cornerstones as a club for strangers or people who had settled in Kumasi.
It was the same with Kumasi Evergreens, which was seen as a nursery club for Kotoko. But it was never envisaged that Kotoko would be ever divided.
Great Ashantis took Kumasi by storm and there were genuine fears that the end of Kotoko was imminent. Fortunately, Kotoko was able to weather the storm, but sometimes it played second fiddle to the new club. We were then growing up in Kumasi, and in our early teens, but we saw it all. Some of us were attracted to Great Ashantis and we used to attend their training sessions. The Jackson’s Park was the battleground any time the two foes met.
However after only two years with the new club, CK left Kumasi to pitch camp with Accra Hearts of Oak from 1956. Great Ashantis did not die with his exit, but continued to make an impact in Ghana football well into the 60s under the captainship of the brilliant and immaculate Nana Kofi, who led the club to the FA Cup final in 1964, losing to Real Republicans in a tense match at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Despite the exploits of CK on the field, rising to become the captain of the Black Stars from 1958, it was as a coach that the true worth of Gyamfi became manifest and for which he would forever be remembered.
After a short stint with the German Club, Fortuna Dusseldorf, for whom he played as the first African in 1960-61, he was asked by Nkrumah to return home to become the assistant to the Hungarian coach, Josef Ember, having undergone a coaching course in Germany.
When Coach Ember left in 1962, CK took charge of the Black Stars and was given the mandate to prepare the team for the Nations Cup, which Ghana was hosting, in 1963. It was also Ghana’s first participation in the continental championship.
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I was at the Accra Sports Stadium that memorable day on December 1, 1963 when Ghana beat a rugged Sudanese side 3– 0 to win the first of its four continental titles. CK repeated the dose in 1965 in Tunis, though he took a virtually young side that included only four of the team that won the title in 1963 to Tunisia.
Gyamfi was criticised for taking schoolboys to the tournament. But he surprised everybody when the “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Stars”, as Ohene Djan called them, returned home with the title. They included the likes of Jones Attuquayefio, Ganiyu Salami, Willie Evans (Odongo) and Frank Odoi (VCIO) who were drafted from the Academicals and supported by the likes of Addo Odametey, Osei Kofi and Dodoo Ankrah.
After the 1966 coup, the soccer edifice built by Nkrumah crumbled and CK temporarily disappeared from the radar. That was the period that Ghana soccer at the continental level took a nosedive, failing to win any title after 1965 until “Mr Magic Feet” was recalled to lead Ghana to the Nations Cup which was hosted by Libya in 1982.
CK, you have fought the good fight and you have won the race. Now you can rest in peace. Adieu !!!
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