By Joyce Asiedu
The Captain of the Ghana National Amputee Football Team, Richard Arthur Opentil, has thrown a challenge to President Nana Akufo Addo to provide the team with air tickets to the world cup and see if the trophy wouldn’t come to Ghana.
The Turkey-based player, one of the first professional amputee football players in the world, minced no words in calling on the President to take up the challenge.
“I know what I am talking about. I challenge His Excellency President Akufo Addo to make tickets available to the team and see if Ghana wouldn’t be crowned the next amputee football world cup champions,” Arthur Opentil affirmed.
He said, having gained experience in Turkey in the most active and competitive league in the world, he and his colleague professionals, coupled with some of the local league players, possess all it takes to bring the cup home in a year the Black Stars couldn’t make it to the regular football world cup.
The World Clubs Champions winner and multiple Turkish Amputee Football Super League gold medalist, averred that, “What we need is just about what three Black Stars players got for participating in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil so Ghana shouldn’t miss this opportunity”.
“We have gained the experience; I mean thirteen of us in Turkey and the numerous local players in the Ghana League so I am yet to know any team in the world that we can’t beat,” Opentil stated with confidence.
Ghana is drawn in Group B with Argentina, Italy and France at the World Amputee Football Federation (WAFF) World Cup, scheduled to take place from October 24 to November 5, in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The Black Challenge have vowed to bring the cup home as preparations begin in earnest to make the dream a reality.
The thirteen (13) professional players have started arriving in the country to join their local counterparts for a non-residential training session that would herald a residential camping prior to the tournament.
