The maiden edition of the Osei Mensah Joseph (OMJ) Foundations’ soccerfest at Akuapem south records a huge turnout.
OMJ soccerfest is a soccer festival instituted by the OMJ Foundation. The purpose of this initiative is to help young individuals within rural communities to exhibit their talents competitively and to introduce them to bigger platforms.
For the maiden edition, hundreds of the Akuapem south youth came out to compete and to cheer their favourite sides to victory.
In all, six (6) towns battled for the big prize.
Konkonuru, the host town emerged as champions after trashing finalist Berekusu by 4:2 on penalty shootouts after clinging to a 2:2 drawn game. The remaining towns that participated were Aburi, Oboadaka, Ahwerease and Kitaase, all within the Akuapem South Municipality.
In an interactive session with the C.E.O and founder, he said, “In the long term, the foundation aims to harness young talents who have the desire to pursue a career in the area of football and connect them to professional football teams/clubs for their carrier development.”
He continued saying, “Aside from identifying and developing young talents, this Soccerfest initiative will largely promote and foster unity among communities and serves as a platform to engage the youth on social issues”.
He rounded up by saying the OMJ SoccerFest will be a calendared annual event and is just one of the many projects and programs earmarked to develop and empower the youth within the municipality in diverse ways with the help of benevolent individuals, firms, corporate Ghana as well as governmental agencies.
The event was climaxed with an award presentation to winners and soccer talents who put out outstanding performances during the competition. A trophy and a set of jerseys were presented to Konkonuru as winners. Footballs, football boots, and goalkeeper's gloves were presented to Berekusu as the 1st runner-up’s, the highest scorer, and the best goalkeeper respectively.
The player select committee by a simple majority judged the following as players with great talents and recommended they are given the needed push to enhance their career progression.
1. Isaac Gyan (Goalkeeper) - age 16
2. Samuel Pobi (Central Defender Samuel) - age 18
3. Carrick Frimpong (Midfielder) - age 20
4. Theophilus Ofosu (Striker) - age 17
The C.E.O, Mr. Osei Mensah Joseph, a former SRC president of GIMPA has therefore appealed to the general public, especially those in the football fraternity, to reach out, adopt and support these talents to develop their professional football careers.
He said the next SoccerFest will be bigger as he anticipates it will involve all the towns within the municipality.