Mourinho in Ghana
Chelsea Football Club manager Jose Mourinho signs an autograph for a young fan during a coaching clinic held in Accra, Ghana Wednesday May 30, 2007. Members of the English Premier League team traveled to Ghana this week to visit projects run by its global charity partner Right To Play, which uses sport to bring attention to communities fighting poverty, war, or disease. (AP Photo/Olivier Asselin)
Students from the football academy of Accra warm up with Chelsea players 31 May 2007 during a training session. Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho is in Ghana with several young Chelsea players as part of the first major initiative in the six-year partnership announced in January between the English premiership side and the Canadian NGO Right To Play, which aims to highlight the importance of sports in promoting development, peace and health.
CHELSEA IN GHANA: THOUSANDS WATCH ON
May 31st 2007 must go down as one of the most remarkable days in Chelsea Football Club history. Certainly one of the most remarkable when no full game of football was played.
At no-one time in our colourful 102 years can blue-shirted players and staff have been involved in a coaching session with players from quite such a different background, in quite such a setting and to quite such a reaction.
The Chelsea delegation has flown to Ghana with the intention of breaking new ground by working alongside the charity Right To Play in its efforts to use sport to further development, health and peace in Africa.
In the city of Tamale, in the northern region of the country, Thursday afternoon was unique, both for the residents by their own admission, and definitely in the scenes now burned in the memory of the Chelsea contingent.
Make no mistake, the excitement was down in no small part to the presence of Michael Essien who had joined up with party the previous night.
Just over an hour was needed the next morning to fly Ghana's biggest sporting star, 'the president' as one radio station described him, to the other side of his country where the airport reception gave little hint of the hours to come.
In comparison with Accra two days earlier, this was a terminal building close on deserted. Far out of town, the journey had been too much of an obstacle according to the main organiser of the 52-member strong Tamale Chelsea Fan Club.
Present however was the Mayor of Tamale, Mohammed Amin Anta, to greet the players and coaches, no chains or formal clothing hanging from his shoulders, just a straight-forward Chelsea/Lampard home shirt.
Legions of like-minded supporters can be found in Ghana's largest region he informed, and thanked the delegation for not ignoring the further flung population when so many projects visit the capital alone.
Londoners would find in Accra several of the familiar features of England city life - not least the traffic! But on the journey from the airport to the next port of call, it quickly became clear that Tamale was a vastly different way of living.
This was an area of mud hut villages, and even the odd mud mosque and church. It was an area of corrugated metal-roofed, open-fronted, road side shops. It was an area of thousands of school kids on pushbikes or on foot running.
The countryside was open savanna, the majority of the people farming crops for the rest of the country with a few involved in commerce. Yet puncturing the landscape like spaceship from afar was a vast, state-of-the-art, brand new stadium, built by a Chinese firm as one of the four venues for next year's African Cup of Nations. It was an incredible juxtaposition.
Lunch was with the minister for the region, Hon. Alhaji Mustapha Ali Iddris, an ex-footballer who insisted that the city stops when Chelsea plays and boasted the best Ghanaian players come from the region.
You could almost hear other parts of Ghana arguing that point but a little research does show pedigree in this area.
Adebe Pele, one of the first African players to make an impact in Europe, had his family roots in a nearby village and although he grew up in Accra, he made his breakthrough as a player with Tamale's club side.
Mohammed Choo was the name of a local who was top scorer in the domestic league in 1978 and 1982, and Shilla Eliqasu-Membe was a colleague of Essien's at the last World Cup.
The courtesy visits aside, the day was all about the afternoon training session for 90 children in three age groups, under 12s, 15s and 17s, all from the Stand Fast club.
Already a crowd pushing 1,000 was lining the pitch on Chelsea's arrival. The joy when the party, and Essien especially, disembarked from the bus was close on tangible. It was impossible not feel affected by the scenes.
Where the pitch had been grass in Accra, here it was dust and stones. Where there had been a walled stadium, here it was open wasteland. Remaining unchanged were the training routines.
The cheers were not only reserved for the national sporting hero's contribution but were for any decent piece of skill by anyone and half-an-hour in, it was becoming clear that the crowd was swelling all the time.
Those who didn't already know of the event were quickly finding out explained Mohammed Baako Alhassan, sports presenter from Radio Savana Tamale. Mobile phones were buzzing.
He knew personally of people travelling in from 60kms away and trucks and scooters could be seen arriving from all directions.
He also reassured that the claims of mass support for Chelsea were not just the diplomatic words of politicians. Everyone really does crowd around TVs each time Essien and colleagues are in action, paying for the privilege as well.
The support is because Chelsea respect African football and will play Africans if the quality is there explained a member of the Tamale Chelsea Fan Club.
The now considerable attendance must have been mind-blowing for the youngsters engaged in a shooting exercise in one penalty area. Mercifully Essien turned the regular power down on his efforts, or the Red Cross might have been flying in. The crossbar did need to be tied back together once although the culprit was unclear.
Then came the impromptu moment of the day. The Chelsea Player of the Year decided to walk slowly around the perimeter of the pitch, greeting and shaking hands with all the youngest kids watching on. With just a few minor exceptions, the crowd responded by staying the right side of the boundary and a favourite for the highlight of the trip had been established.
By the end of training, the crowd was five deep everywhere, maybe ten deep in places. Some went as far as to estimate the crowd at 8,000. No-one thought it below 5,000.
It was only at the moment it became clear to the masses that the session had drawn to a close, did the human dam break, but when it did, what a flood!
Everyone from Chelsea was swamped in a sea of Ghanaian enthusiasm, yet apart from a few forceful requests to write down addresses, it never felt threatening.
Faring less well was the equipment, ear-marked to be donated to the local club. The chance that they will see any of it is close to zero. The chance any of it is in one-piece is similar odds as souvenirs were hunted voraciously.
When the delegation finally made it back on board, the coach was buzzing with the experience as it was chased to the hotel by an armada of scooters, bikes and runners.
When the long talk about the crowd scenes subsided and the ball work was remembered, the verdict was similar to Accra - there are many high quality young players in this corner of the continent.
But this was a day that will be remembered for so much more than simply kicking a football around a pitch of dust and stones.
By Paul Mason
(from chelseafc.com)
I wonder how bitter the great Mourinho is. After spending millions in the tranfer market year in and year out, he has failed to guide his team to a single Champions League final. I wont be suprised if gets fired at the end of the season.
