Okwahu United Captain Prince Siaw has lauded former coach Alhaji Ibrahim Meriga for his massive contribution to his flourishing football career.
Siaw, joined the ‘Asase Aban’ lads in 2010 and has since then grow to become an integral member of the team, featuring close to 60 times for his outfit and captained his side to last year’s MTN FA Cup finals at Cape Coast where they lost-out to Bechem United.
Speaking exclusively to sportsworldGhana.com he said being a soccer player has never featured for any third(3rd) or second(2nd) division team but maneuvered his way straight to the first team squad of Okwahu,then in the first(1st) division by kind courtesy Coach Meriga, who saw him play at the sideways with some colleague friends and invited him over for trials.
Having played for Okwahu Youngsters at the colts level he joined the former Premiership side and has since then seen his career grow from strength to strength.
Working under Meriga as a coach after seeing him play his hearts out for Ghana Premier League giants Accra Hearts of Oak Siiaw stated “Working with someone like coach Meriga was such an amazing experience for me. He’s such a disciplinarian who will never take it lightly with you when you happen skip his training section. He’s very serious and doesn’t jock with his training”
“As most coaches have their preferred and favorite players,Ibrahim Meriga is far from that but always depend on his training series to select the players he thinks can give him his preferred results going into each game,” Siaw noted.
Parting ways with Meriga describe “was such an awful and painful moment for the team. But you can’t say much cause it all forms part of the game,and can’t begrudge anyone.”
Highlighting that aside Ibrahim Meriga has also gotten the opportunity to work with equally excellent and good top coaches like coach Gideon Abu who currently ply’s his trade as a coach with Samatex FC, Mohammed Gargo (Former player for Udinese-Italy), coach Abugri and Coach Sarfo Castro who handed to him his captaincy role in the team, admitting going divers ways with Meriga “is one of those things in soccer.”
Applauding the MTN FA Cup finals for the exposure it gave him disclosed there have been numerous offers from both foreign and local teams,with the most serious suitors who wanted him to pen down contract to settle with them being Bechem United and Great Olympics, but rejected them all just to see Okwahu United at a certain stage,like qualifying the team to premier before he can then decide to mutually opt out from the team.
Admonishing it wasn’t how low or poor the various contract offers put before him were said “at that time Okwahu United was exciting to be with,most especially at the potent time of the helping hands of Hon.Ben Achempong ,who at that time gave each player GH 2,000 for qualifying the team to the finals of the FA Cup competition,so weighing other options in the team help kept me not to switch team,” he revealed.
In addition also said the solicits that previously keeps ‘Asase Aban’ going presently is inadequate, with Hon.Achempong’s help to the team currently not as it was days back,following a beef which poped-up between him and the club owners,after he requested for the administrative papers to the club with the motive to help lift the club to its desirable state,at the point the team had taken a nosedive, which he was denied of.
The latter further brought to the lame light,saying the honorable though bored at the team but later came to the team’s rescue in its last five(5) round of league matches,having spotted the team was in crisis.
Okwahu United,seeded in Zone 3 in the recently ended division one(1) league have once again tasted the bitterness of relegation after failing out from premier years back has been demoted yet again to the division two(2), following their 9 points deduction due to the team’s inability to pay then coach Sarfo Castro placed them 13th on the league log with 37 points.