He came into the fray with so much promise and even at a younger age, his talent was glare for every football-loving soul to see.
A very quick left-footed agile striker with an eye for goal, Godsway Donyoh was seen as the new Tony Yeboah, a Ghana great who mesmerized defenders in the Bundesliga and English Premiership in the early 90’s.
Starting his career on the grass less pitches of Accra for Mobitel FC, a colts club based in the environs of Achimota, it took no time for Donyoh’s talent to be noticed by one of the biggest soccer academies in West Africa, Right to Dream which is owned by Tom Vernon who was for a decade, the Chief Scout of Manchester United for Africa.
Beaming with confident and looking into the future brightly, Donyoh passed through all the trial stages netting eight goals before he was offered scholarship to study and play football in the academy.
“Everyone in the academy knows you do have to leave Godsway in the danger zone, if he gets twenty chances, he will score 19” This were the words of Tom Vernon during the Right to Dream awards night in 2013 when the foreign-based graduates played against the local boys.
Donyoh before attaining the age of 18 and being signed by Manchester City had been the arrow-head of his age group team which comprised of former Chelsea Burkinabe striker Bertrand Traore. The budding attacker had led Right to Dream Academy to win the Manchester youth Cup, he was named as the best striker of the tournament which included future Premier League stars such as Jesse Lingard and others.
With the Citizens already having experienced strikers such as Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and others, the 18-year-old Ghanaian was sent to the second team for playing time after which he was loaned out Swedish side Djurgarden IF for first team experience.
Because of his versatility, Donyoh was played out of position and was mainly used as a left winger something which did not go well with Manchester City as they wanted him to feature in a centre-forward role. Despite playing wide, he netted ten goals in 13 games for the Under 21’s and and twice in the Alsvenskan for the senior team.
City brought him back to the Etihad Stadium and in the winter he joined then newly-promoted Alsvenskan side Falkenberg where he managed five goals including a brace against champions Malmo FF in a 3-2 defeat.
Donyoh joined Danish Superliga side FC Nordsjaelland on a free transfer on January 29, 2016 and has not looked back. He has grown to become one of the most prolific strikers in the topflight. He managed four games before the season ended and in his second season, he netted eight goals. The following season, he was leading the goal king chart in Denmark with five goals after eight games before tearing the ligaments in his knee and being out of action for six months.
Despite that set back, Donyoh has bounced back this season and is firing from all angles. So far, he is Ghana’s leading scorer in Europe this season with ten goals and two assists from 22 league games. Burnley and Everton have all made scouts to watch him at Fayum and it is evident that he could make a move to the EPL in June.
Ironically, Donyoh has been overlooked by the current Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah despite being Ghana’s best striker in Europe currently. The 24-year-old trained with the Black Stars under Avram Grant in 2017 prior to the AFCON and though he was arguably the best attacker during the training sessions, he was not included in the team for the tournament in Gabon.
Coach Kwesi Appiah handed him a call up for the qualifier with Ethiopia on June 11, 2017 but he was now recovering from injury and Nordsjaelland did not release him. The attacker has not being called again whilst players who are firing blank at their clubs are being given the chance.
With Gyan getting to the twilight of his career, Donyoh who has been left in the Scandinavian cold by the Black Stars coaches is the obvious choice to fill the boots of the Kayserispor striker.
Credit: Edmund Okai Gyimah for fallaboweh.com (Sweden)
