Medeama Sporting Club forward Jonathan Sowah has revealed that he wept tears of joy when he first received the call to join the Black Stars latest squad.
The in-form attacker is the only local striker invited by coach Chris Hughton for the final AFCON 2023 qualifier against the Central African Republic in Kumasi.
Sowah who converted the winning penalty against Remo FC of Nigeria, helped his side Medeama to advance in the African Champions League preliminary round. He also grabbed a brace against Dreams FC in the Champion of Champions final.
The all round play and fearless combative style of the boy from Nungua Maamli, is what appears to have caught the attention of national team selectors who will be looking for fresh options in the 2023 AFCON qualifier on Thursday 7th September.
In an emotional interview after helping Medeama beat Dreams FC 2-1, the 24 year old dedicated his national team call up to his late mother.
“She is the reason I’m here. She was my prayer warrior and kept telling me one day I will be a great footballer. Even though she passed away some years ago, her spirit is always with me”.
Sowah is a well known beach baller in Nungua, a coastal town in the Ghanaian capital Accra, where he has been playing beach soccer and street football popularly known as “gutter to gutter”.
From his preparatory school days in Nima to playing Colts football in Madina, he continued to develop his skills at Kwahu Senior High in the Eastern region playing just for fun as he recalls.
At the same time, his family also kept praying for a breakthrough offer from any local team as their son continued to showcase his obvious football talent.
According to the player’s beach soccer coach Nicholas Otu Laryea, at a point, Sowah decided to quit grass football completely due to lack of a breakthrough to focus only on beach soccer.
In 2021, he was shortlisted by the national beach soccer team Black Sharks who were preparing for the AFCON Beach Soccer qualifiers. Unfortunately, injury curtailed that dream but what transpired after that is the stuff of movies.
He picked up the pieces of his football career again with Danbort FC as he returned to the grass pitch before he was spotted by the President of current Ghana Premier League and Super Cup champions, Moses Armah.
It was Mr Armah who funded the players surgery on his fractured ankle to save Sowah’s football career.
It is not surprising that he is always full of praise for the man popularly known as Moses Parker.
Sowah has also made it known that lessons from beach soccer, hard work and his determination to make it in football, has kept his dream alive.
“I just love playing football and I want to show the world what I can do when given the chance but I know I would not have made it this far without the lessons and support of the good people around me”.
For Sowah, a new chapter in his life has just been opened and the rest of his inspirational story would be determined largely by how well he handles the challenges and opportunities that await him.
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