MP urges government to support retired athletes

The Member of Parliament for Asante Akyim North Andy Appiah-Kubi has made a clarion call on government to extend support to retired athletes who are currently in substandard living conditions.

He made this call when members of parliament were celebrating the former Black Stars Player Asamoah Gyan who announced his retirement on Tuesday 20th June ,2023.

The Asante Akyim North lawmaker was of the view that there is the need for government to prioritize support for retired athletes who have contributed to the country’s sports development and also provide them the needed resources to enable them offer their expertise into the current sports development.

“With Asamoah Gyan, we have been able to achieve glories across Africa and in the world and indeed we have performed so well in the world stage during the world cup that he has participated and he has distinguished himself, so he deserved all praises and honour that we are given to him now” Hon Appiah-Kubi said.

“I hope to go to the other stage of the discussion and not only to sing the praises as the hero and also to look at the people who played for the country like Dogo Moro, Osei Kofi, Mfum, Mohammed Polo who was my hero in childhood and the rest, if we look at the contribution they did for the country particularly the sports department it beat my imagination why the country has not done same for them” he stated.

“If you look at the other part of the world, when footballers retires they retire into management and coaching but unfortunately, we here decided to import such talents from outside our jurisdiction and pay them huge sum of money whiles we could have invested such sum of monies in these our heroes into management and into our soccer” he added.

Mr Speaker is about time we do something for our heroes. In a case of Asamoah Gyan he has invested his monies so well that he has now turn to successful businessman, so he may need the state support.

Mr Speaker the mentioning of the endowment fund is welcome and we should also focus on their retirement package. People like Osei Kofi who refused to travel for greener pastures need to be celebrated.

“As we celebrate our current hero Asamoah Gyan lets look back yesteryear’s and find out what we can do for our past heroes too. Indeed, those who are playing now, lets see how we can develop their carriers so that they can graduate into management so that they can take care of our national teams. I cannot end by remembering our formal national team coach Kwesi Appiah who lead the team to beat the almighty Egypt in Kumasi by 6 goals to 1 but we found it necessary by some point in time to get rade of him and engage foreigners and pay them astronomical fees in which our leaders cannot even pay” Hon Appiah-Kubi echoed.

I pray that we change our attitude towards our heroes when they are no more on the field to play and look at how we can transform such talents into future use, let us support them in times of challenges, particularly our formal players in our national team so that people can look up to them to raise the flag of Ghana.

Members of Parliament have praised ex-Black Stars player and international striker Asamoah Gyan for his successful football carreer and contribution to the country’s football development.

The Speaker of Parliament Rt, hon Alban Bagbin congratulate Asamoah Gyan and encouraged Members of Parliament to support him by purchasing his autobiography titled ‘LeGyandary’ of which the money accumulated will be donated to Asamoah Gyan’s foundation.

Gyan officially announced his retirement from football on Tuesday 20th June.

Asamoah Gyan, a hero of Ghanaian football whose name became synonymous with African triumph, announced his retirement from soccer at the age of 37 in a move that sent shockwaves across the football globe.

At a ceremony in the energetic city of Accra, the prolific striker, Ghana’s all-time leading goal scorer with an amazing 51 goals, said goodbye to a career spanning more than 20 years.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com/Nana Kwaku Boffah