2 Ghanaians Win Amputee Champions League
Two Ghanaian amputee players plying their trade in Turkey have won this year's Amputee Football Champions League trophy with their club Yennimahalle.
Richard Arthur Opentil and Francis Antwi-Darkwah made history by becoming the first Africans, and for that matter Ghanaians, to win the special tournament in Moscow, Russia.
Their club beat competition from nine other amputee clubs from across the world to lift the coveted trophy.
In the final match, Yennimahalle beat Dinamo Altay of Russia 3-0 to become the Champions of the Cup of Victory, as it is called.
They won the Turkish Amputee League 1 to qualify for the tournament.
Richard Opentil crowned a successful tournament with a goal in the final match, together with the man-of-the-match accolade. He scored in almost all the matches he played.
The two players were part of the first three Ghanaian players to be transferred to Turkey in 2011, the first ever amputee football transfer in the world.
The other player, Attah Yeboah, plays for Konya, together with another Ghanaian, Richard Ekwam, currently gunning for the goal king title in Turkey.
Opentil is the captain of the Ghana National Amputee Football Team, the Black Challenge, and his assistant is Francis Antwi-Darkwah.
The players would soon be in Ghana for the summer break and they would use the opportunity to train with their colleagues in preparation towards the 4th Cup of African Nations for Amputee Football (CANAF 2013) to be hosted by Kenya in November this year.