Latif Blessing: A Shamo Quaye of our time
A lot of has been said about Liberty Professionals winger Latif Atta Blessing who is just 19 years and he is the most exciting player in the ongoing Ghana Premier League.
Being an ardent follower of the Ghana Premier League for the past 15 years, the diminutive winger is truly the Shamo Quaye of our time which no one can dispute that fact.
But still there will be avalanche of questions why Latif Blessing is the Shamo Quaye of our time and there are facts to prove that.
First of all, who is this Shamo Quaye, a name that is common on the lips of Ghanaians? He is late but his name will forever live as long as football goes on in Ghana.
Quaye started his footballing career at Hearts of Oak's junior side Auroras in the 80's and he was then graduated to the senior team when Dr. Nyaho Tamakloe took over the club.
The late Quaye was Hearts of Oak's dangerous player on the field with support coming from the likes of the late Santrofi Acquah and Ablade Kumah. That Hearts of Oak team was knighted as the 'Musical Youth' by the club's followers.
Quaye is an offensive midfielder player who can play at the right or left flank and also behind the main attacker and he is very skilful, he can use both his foots and he is a goal poacher.
One thing that Ghanaians will not forget about the departed legend his - is pre-match predictions and how he normally rubbed his face with white powder when there is a big game.
When Shamo Quaye promises he fulfills it and he was given the name 'Shamo Leather'. He featured for the Black Meteors in the 1992 Olympics Games in Barcelona when Ghana won Bronze in the football category.
Until his death in 1997, he was playing for Swiss side Umea FC.
A legend has gone but looking through the mirror there is another legend in a making - cast in the mode of the departed icon, the current top-scorer in the Ghana Premier League with six goals after 8 games is Liberty's Latif Blessing.
The diminutive midfielder began his career with number of colt clubs like Kaizer FC and Elefeba FC before he moved to lower tier side Blessing FC based in Adabraka a suburb in Ghana's capital, Accra.
Latif in 2013 joined Liberty Professionals' youth team and a year later he was graduated to the senior team but he was a bench warmer.
He was unperturbed for warming the bench, he kept his cool until he was given the opportunity by Coach George Lamptey and he shot to fame when he inspired his team to thrashed Asante Kotoko 3-1 at the Carl Reindoff Park in Dansonman in a Premier League game.
Latif in that game scored and provided two assists as he was the torn in the flesh of the Ghanaian giants. Since then the young chap has never looked back.
Latif Blessing has Shamo Quaye's attributes that is, when he promised he fulfills. Prior to the season in his interviews he kept on saying that he will take the Premier League by storm, he is on course doing that.
Prior to Liberty's week 8 League game against Kotoko, he said he will score and he did that by scoring in the second minute, at the end his team lost the game 3-1.
Enough of the promises and let us look at Latif's quality and juxtapose it to the late Shamo Quaye. Latif can use both his legs same as Shamo Quaye.
He can score, dribble and play at the right, left side of attack and behind the main striker same as the departed Hearts of Oak's legend.
With Latif's quality let me borrow my colleague Muftawu Abdulai Nabila words on how he described him in one of his articles - 'He has the pace of a cheetah, the trickery of Ronaldihno during his peak form, and the finishing of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.'