Bringing Fabio Gama’s wife to Ghana part of deal – Kotoko CEO Nana Yaw Amponsah reveals

Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of Asante Kotoko, Nana Yaw Amponsah, has disclosed that bringing Fabio Gama’s family with him to Ghana was part of their transfer deal.

The Brazilian playmaker had an impressive debut in the Ghana Premier League after joining the Porcupine Warriors last year and becomes the third player to join the club.

Gama signed a two year deal with the Reds.
Earlier this month, he was named the most attractive player in the Ghana Premier League by the African Sports Centre (ASC), per findings of their annual Ghana Premier League Report survey.

“We also had to dig deep into Fabio Gama, of course, it was a huge risk,” Amponsah said during ASC’s Ghana Premier League Webinar with the Johan Cruyff Institute,

“One of the things we had to do for Fabio Gama to succeed was to bring his family with him. He had to come with his wife and his child.

“That meant extra cost that could have put us off, but we felt that for him to settle, and also not to have destructions, it was important that we did that for him, and it paid off.

“So, in terms of the commercialization in every decision we take in Asante Kotoko, you cannot take it out. Every step is well calculated, we don’t always get it right but because we are very meticulous and very considerate of these factors, most at times we get it right.”

“This is a player with a big history. He played for Brazil U-17, U-20, couldn’t make it to the very top as expected. He was playing in Europe, Sweden had never come to Africa, you know you need to dig to find out whether he will adapt, his adaptation.

“And if you remember, when Fabio Gama came in, there was a lot of pressure on us to play him. Because some said he was a carpenter, some said we had brought in a farmer.

“But we had to be patient to give him at least one month of preparation, despite the pressure to ensure that he had trained properly, he had adjusted to the weather, and then he was ready before we unleashed him. And you realized that when we unleashed him, it paid off.

“It could have gone either way, but we weighed the risk factors and we believed that we had about 75%-85% chance of him performing,” he added.

Gama has also had an impressive start of the season under Prosper Narteh Ogum.