Five things you didn’t know about Ben Koufie

Pulse Sports writer Thomas Freeman Yeboah takes you through five (5) things you didn’t know about the legendary football brain,

He played for Vipers and Kumasi Evergreens instead of Dwarfs and Corners Stones

It is in the Public domain that the legendary football coach and administrator played for Ebusua Dwarfs and Kumasi Corners Stones. However, he played for Dwarfs rival club Vipers, before he joined Kumasi Evergreens, instead of Corners Stones. He was a pillar in defence and had high sense of judgment of the game.

The only person to play and coach the Black Stars and head the GFA as well

Ben Koufie is unmatched as the only person to have risen through the rank and file of Ghana football from the bottom to the top. He played for the Black Stars and later coached them before becoming the chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GFA)

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Ben Koufie is believed to have cursed Zimbabwean football

He was in charge of the Warriors of Zimbabwe from 1988 to 1992. Zimbabwe came close to qualifying for the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations in Zambia, but unfortunately missed out. He quit the job due to his differences with the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA). Ben Koufie, after failing to guide the team to the continental showpiece, infamously declared in 1991 that Zimbabwe would not qualify for any major tournament even if they imported a coach from the moon, a statement many believed cast a bad spell on the Warriors of Zimbabwe. They believe that curse hampered the growth of football in Zimbabwe and the York was broken in 2004. Zimbabwe’s Warriors finally exorcised the ghost that had been haunting them for two decades and dumped their label as the eternal bridesmaids of African football when they booked their maiden place at the Nations’ Cup soccer finals in Tunisia in 2004.

Ben Koufie assisted Kotoko to continental glory

As the national team coach Ben koufie had an oversight responsibility over all Ghanaian clubs, so he assisted Aggrey Fyn, the head coach of Kotoko by offering technical advice during their participation in the African Club Champions Cup in 1970. He joined the Porcupine Warriors to continental assignments and it paid off when they won the Champions Cup. That was the first time a Ghanaian club won a continental title.

Ben Koufie is the brain behind zonal Women’s league in Ghana

He sold out the idea of zonal Women’s football league in Ghana to the Ghana Football Association, while working as the head of the technical directorate of the association. He propounded that idea to help cut down the cost of transportation to match venues across the country.