Rush Hour Sports host and member of the vibrant FOX Sports crew, Opoku Afriyie Richmond has won a top award from Top Kings Foundation for his skillful display of knowledge and extensive coverage of local football in the country, which has propelled him as the best promoter of local football beyond compare.
As a brain child of the President of premier league side Bechem United FC, Kings Foundation Awards has been in existence since 1997 when the first edition of the annual awards was held in Bechem, and has seen many influential personalities in the areas of sports, journalism, politics, entrepreneurship, health etc awarded for their great exploits in contributing to the development of the nation.
Known for his passion for the development of local football and a serious campaigner for the need for Ghanaian media to devote much of their time for coverage of the local game, Opoku Afriyie, affectionately called Pkay by his ardent listeners and followers of the game, had his efforts recognized by organizers of Kings Foundation Awards as they conferred on him a Certificate Of Honour at the 22nd edition of the annual awards held in Bechem last Sunday night.
The significant award citation read, “For your skillful display of exceptional talent in the discharge of your duty as a great sports analyst beyond compare coupled with your extensive coverage and knowledge of the game of football thereby helping to shape the general development of sports in the country”.
Pkay mounted the stage to pick his Top Kings Aaward for the first time in its 22 years of existence, accompanied by the entire Fox Sports crew comprising of Jude Owusu Baffour, Stephen Tetteh (Continental Commentator), Wisdom Osei Bonsu (Darling Boy Piero), Jeff Nyantakyi (Jeff 1) led by the Director of the Sports Department, Rockson Adjei Yeboah.
A total of 12 awardees picked up awards on the night for their incomparable contributions towards development in distinct areas of human life. These included H.E. Dr. Erieka Bennett (Founder and Head of Mission, Diaspora African Forum), Hon. Isaac Kwame Asiamah (current minister of Youth and Sports), the legendary sports broadcaster Kwabena Yeboah (President, SWAG) among other notable journalists and influential personalities.
After receiving the award, presented by Miss Murel Essel, sister-in-law of Mr. Kingsley Owusu Achau, Opoku Afriyie expressed his gratitude to the organizers for the honour done him and humbly appealed to colleague journalists to assist in promoting local football to enable the local game rock shoulders with the European standard. “First of all, our father Owusu Achau may God bless you abundantly, today is a very happy day for me because, there are so many presenters here in Ghana, so if you recognize somebody like Opoku Afriyie and choose to award him, it’s a very exciting thing”, he said. “One thing I would like to tell my fellow journalists is that, just as I have devoted myself to the absolute coverage of local football, I would like you all to help to make the game attractive, it will only take we journalists to help promote and develop our local football”, he appealed.
For the records, Opoku Afriyie’s extensive knowledge and coverage of local football earned him an award by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) in collaboration with Super Sports as “The Best Promoter of the Local League” in the 2014/2015 football season during the awards gala at the Stage Banquet Hall, Accra.
Still hungry for the development of domestic football, Opoku Afriyie is the CEO for Unity FC, a division one football club based at Kenyase No 1 helping to develop footballers at the youth level for the future of Ghana football.
