Former captain of Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Yussif Alhassan Chibsah, says he believes bitter rivals Accra Hearts of Oak were destined to win the newly introduced Caf confederation cup in 2004.
He made this known on GTV sports+ “Time with the captains” show, a live studio discussion, on Sunday, May 3, 2020.
According to him, his side Kotoko were very high in spirits after getting the first goal at the Accra sports stadium in the first leg before Hearts of Oak equalised in add on time, going into the second leg everything showed that Kotoko will win but everything changed on match day which was really Heart breaking.
“Kotoko as team and we the players were very confident that no matter what happens, we were going to win the first ever Caf confederation cup because we did well in our group. I can confidently say that our group at the time was stronger than that of Accra Hearts of Oak but unfortunately our game plan changed on the match day and we had to lose painfully.”
“After watching the game again and again, I am convinced that Kotoko lost from the bench.”
“So in my view, I believe strongly that Hearts of Oak were destined to win the cup,” he added.
Yussif Chibsah started his football career with Kumasi based King Faisal Babies before moving on to Kumasi Asante Kotoko in the Ashanti Region. After a long career stint with Kotoko Chibsah, he moved to Mariehamn in the Finnish premier Division in 2006 where he managed to score 3 goals before joining Gefle IF.
In a very good form, the former Kotoko captain got a good deal to join Djurgardens IF and to Alanyaspor and GAIS before ending his successful and enviable career at Ljungskile Sk In 2016.
In attendance for the memorable 2004 Caf confederation cup final match discussion for Kumasi Asante Kotoko were Yusif Alhasaan Chibsah, Charles Asampong Tailor and Joseph Hendricks who joined via Zoom; while former captain, Amankwah Mireku, Lawrence Adjah Tetteh and the serial killer, Bernard Don Bortey, stood in for Accra Hearts of Oak.
Story filed by Jacob Narh Nortah.
Twitter handle: @NarhNortah
