Sunday: If only the post had been better

But, Ibrahim Sunday owns the special distinction of being the first Ghanaian player to win the African Footballer of the Year award in 1971. Coming in only the second year the award was given, the honour was the all the more remarkable because he was just 21 years old at the time. And a few years later he became the first black player to play professionally in the German Bundesliga.

But as Sunday told African Football Media in this exclusive interview, things could have been very different, had the postal system in Ghana been working more efficiently at the time.

Amazing discovery
"I joined Kumasi Asante Kotoko as a youngster and soon became captain of the side,” he explained of his meteoric rise through world football. “I was first called up to the national side in 1967, although I was only 17 years old.”

In 1970 Kotoko qualified for the African Champions Cup final against TP Englebert of Zaire. "After drawing the first game we won the second 2-1 to become the champions of Africa, and I had a very good game. After the match I met a man called Hansi Wolff from Werder Bremen. He asked if I would take a photograph with him and I said yes, why not? So I took the photograph with him and he left. I had no idea that he had come to Africa to look for an African player. He never told me anything like that."

Sunday says he then forgot the incident until he received a copy of the photograph from somebody at the Ghana Sports Council. "So I said to myself, ‘wow, this man has sent me a copy of the photograph,’ so I was happy -- not knowing at the time that he had written a letter in which he said that he wanted me to come to Germany to play for his team - Werder Bremen."

Because the postal system did not reach all areas of the country then, Wolff had sent the invitation to Sunday via the Sports Council with the photograph, but only the photograph was passed on and as a result, Sunday never replied to the letter.

In 1974 Werder Bremen went to America on a pre-season tour and played a match against the now-defunct Dallas Tornado, for whom Mohammed Attaih was playing. Attaih was also from Ghana and Wolff asked him if he knew Sunday. When Attaih replied that he did, Wolff told him about the letter and asked him to contact Sunday when next he returned to Ghana.

"The next time I saw Attaih he told me about it, and I contacted Wolff. He told me that he had bought another player because he could not get hold of me, but that he would try to sell him and then I could come. And that’s what happened.

Struggling with snow in Germany
By the time he arrived in Northern Europe at age 25, Sunday had already achieved more than most footballers do in their entire career. He had played in two finals at the African Nations Cup - losing both, to DR Congo in 1966 and Sudan in 1970 - had won the African club championship, had participated at two Olympic Games with Ghana (Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972) and was an African Footballer of the Year.

But things changed when he started playing in Germany, and his time there, even though he signed a two-year contract, was very difficult. "I was not the first Ghanaian to go. CK Gyamfi went to Dusseldorf, but he did not play in the Bundesliga and I became the first African to sign a professional contract in Germany.

"The time in Germany was so very difficult. The manager who brought me there left the club and another manager came, and I suddenly had very little playing time. I was very unhappy."

The former midfielder said he also struggled with the weather away from his native tropics. "I had never seen snow before, and I had never experienced a cold season before. On my first day of playing in the snow, it was a training session, I asked my team-mates ‘are you crazy, can you play football in snow?’ I told them I wouldn’t play in the snow, but they told me I had to.”

Sunday spent most of his time on the bench or in the stands and was only given an opportunity once to play in a Bundesliga game, when he was brought on as a second-half substitute in Bremen's 2-0 defeat against Rot Weiss Essen.

"I felt homesick,” he said looking back on the lack of playing time. “At the time there were very few Africans and there was a little bit of racism, even among the players. My best friend was the goalkeeper Dieter Burdenski, who was very good to me."

After two years Sunday’s contract was not renewed. However, he decided to remain in Germany to complete a coaching course.

Finding success again
"I played and coached at a district side called Osterholz Scharmbeck and managed to do well. At the same time I was doing my coaching course in Bad Heneff and Cologne."

Once he finished the course he returned to Ghana. "That is one of the reasons why I have no regrets about having gone to Germany,” he confessed. “I would not have done my coaching course, and I learned a lot from the Germans. They are some of the most hard-working people in the world. I realised that it is not only by having the best players that you can have a good team, but that you need to have hard-working and disciplined players. I admire them for that."

Sunday obviously learned a lot, as he has had great success as a coach in Ghana, taking Kotoko to their second African Cup of Champions victory in 1983, and then leading Ivorian club Africa Sports of Abidjan to the African Cup Winners' Cup and the African Super Cup in 1992.

He currently runs a football academy and is involved with a reality TV show for footballers. "We screened 5,000 players and then took 14 into the house. We train them as footballers and try to find their hidden talents. Some of those who came through the show are now playing in the first and premier divisions."

Looking back at his career, the father of four says he has no regrets. "I have a good life. I am healthy and we are happy. I sometimes think about what the players today are earning, but in this world somebody has to sacrifice for others. This is what happened. We played without big money, sometimes without anything at all. I wish maybe my grandchild can take my place, and he can make the money that I did not make."

He says that some of the players of today recognise the contribution that the older generation made. "Others do not care though."

Football has been good to Sunday and he is now giving something back to the game that he loves through coaching. "And I think my time in Germany has helped a little bit towards making people understand that even if we are African or we are European, we are all one people and we are all human beings."

And just sometimes, when he is being thoughtful, Sunday admits that he thinks about what could have been -- had the postal system in Ghana been just a little better in the 1970s.

Copyright AFRICAN FOOTBALL MEDIA

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