Two days on from securing his fourth African top-tier title with Benin’s Coton FC, Trebor Mahtal was back on the job hunt as he looked to strengthen his managerial reputation. Six years into his career, now in June 2031, Mahtal still only had a Local reputation but a Continental C licence.
Mahtal scoured the managerial vacancies for opportunities and applied for roles in Burkina Faso, Congo and Eswatini. He soon received phone calls from all three clubs, while applying for vacancies in Ethiopia and Egypt, before receiving offers from the previous interactions. He rejected the move to Burkina Faso, missed out on the job he most wanted in Eswatini to a local manager with worse reputation and attributes, and delayed the Congoloese offer twice. He then got an exciting interview with a club in Ethiopia the day before the Congolese deadline expired, and he gambled on turning them down. But three days later, that gamble was thrown back in his face as Sidama Coffee chose an Ethiopian alternative.
That left Mahtal back at square one in mid-July, so he continued looking around vacancies to search for potentially interesting opportunities. He was soon offered an interview by a club in Libya, which seemed to go well, before one in Ghana two days later. An offer came in from Libya first, but a negative transfer budget was a big concern, before a much more appealing offer arrived from Ghana. And, on 21 July, Mahtal agreed a £400 per week deal to move directly east to the centre of Ghana.
Who are Asante Kotoko SC?
Kumasi Asante Kotoko Sporting Club is a professional club based in Kumasi, the country’s second largest city in the Ashanti Region of central Ghana. Intriguingly nicknamed the Porcupine Warriors, Asante was founded in 1935 by 13 young Ashanti men led by Kwasi Kumah, a chauffeur to an English military officer, and electrician LY Asamoah. Kumah proposed the idea of starting a football team when he watched a football match and formed the Ashanti United Football Club in 1926, before various name changes led to the current name – which adopted Kotoko (porcupine) to represent the national emblem of the Ashanti nation.
Asante Kotoko compete in the First Capital Plus Premier League, which is the 19th most reputable league in Africa, one place behind Ivory Coast’s top tier. They play at Ghana’s largest stadium, the 40,528-capacity Baba Yara Sports Stadium, which is supported by average training facilities, above average youth recruitment and adequate youth facilities and academy coaching. Ther club has won the Ghanaian Premier League a record 31 times, including 5 titles during this save, as well as 2 CAF Champions League successes way back in 1970 and 1983. Last season, Asante dropped from champions in 2030 to finishing 4th, 5 points back from 2nd-time winners Medeama. Unsurprisingly, the club isn’t in a great position financially, with a bank balance £85k in the red, a £2,800 transfer budget and spending £1,200 over a £13,000 wage budget.
Mahtal was delighted to walk into a squad littered with young talent. However, it also contained a mass of deadwood and players who wanted to join bigger clubs, so he wasted no time selling 11 players for £600k and loaning out 7 more, freeing up over £6,000 per week in wages. The best player remaining was winger Amadu Honey (21), along with goalkeeper Michael Issah (20), attackers Samuel Prempeh (23) and the particularly exciting George Boahen (19) and centre back Musa Hamzata (the old man of the squad at 28). But the big appeal was the huge amount of potential in the squad, led by 17-year-old attacking midfielder Nana Yaw Appiah, midfielders Richard Sarfo, Adam Sekyere and Ishmael Donkor (all 21), attackers Martin Kusi (20), Enock Adade and Michael Owusu (both 21), centre back Kofi Mensah and left back Silas Osman (both 19).
Having assessed the squad available to him, Mahtal initially opted for a 4-2-3-1 approach that leans heavily on short passing, pressing and counter attacking. Prempeh is the primary creative force in behind Owusu, with Honey and Boahen providing the wide threat.
Getting Started in Ghana
The Ghanaian bookies made Asante Kotoko joint-fourth favourites to win the Premier League with title odds of 20/1 along with WAFA SC, and holders Medeama. Accra Lions are 4/9 favourites, followed by Hearts of Oak, who finished down in 9th last season, (11/1) and King Faisal (12/1). But worryingly, the board was expecting Mahtal to finish in the top two places, despite their initial request to finish in the top four when he signed his contract.
Mahtal’s time in Ghana began at Basake Holy Stars. Asante dominated the early stages, having 10 shots to 0 in the first half. He fired them up at the break and they eventually went ahead through a wonderful run and finish by Boahen. Superb play by right back Sackey-Duah put a goal on a plate for Prempeh and Boahen scored another great goal to seal a comfortable 3-1 win. Early Owusu and Honey goals earned a 2-1 win at Aduana before a big test as they welcomed Accra Lions to Ashanti, and Mahtal suffered his first defeat in a tight 1-0 loss – although he saw plenty of positives as they created more chances with twice as much xG. They took those chances at home to Berekum Chelsea as Owusu’s hat trick inspired a 3-1 victory and in a 3-0 win at Kerala before Boahen nicked a 1-0 at home to Heart of Lions. And they went top of the league for the first time as Adade, Chilean full back Goran Fiamengo and Honey led a 3-0 win over Samartex.
Asante’s title credentials were on the line as they travelled to reigning champions Medeama, and two early goals saw them fall to a 2-1 loss. Another big game saw Asante host Hearts of Oak in late October, and this time they came out on top as Honey, Prempeh and midfielder Collins Karim’s first senior goal earned an impressive 3-0 victory. Having been flying, Asante suddenly had consecutive 0-0s before a really poor 1-0 defeat at Legon Cities, but got back on track as Owusu scored twice in a 4-2 win at home to Nsoatreman. Yaw Appiah inspired a 2-0 win at WAFA, which left Asante in 2nd place heading into a month-long break at the halfway point of 17 games.
2032 began with a tough trip to leaders Hearts of Oak, where a completely unfit team led early on through Owusu but slipped to a 2-1 defeat. A 1-1 at home to Medeama and a 2-1 loss at Samartex left them 11 points back from Hearts of Oak with 12 games remaining and, realistically, their title hopes were gone. A pretty poor end to the season saw Asante finish 3rd, a huge 15 points behind winners Hearts of Oak, who won a new league record 24 games and racked up a new record 78 points. Honey was the 3rd top scorer with 19 in 31, with Owusu 6th with 16 in 30, while Prempeh and Boahen topped the assists chart with 14 and 12. But Honey was the best player in the league with an impressive new league record 7.45 rating, which earned him the Player of the Year award.
Continental Cup Excitement
Mahtal’s Asante Kokoto reign began with a goalfest in qualification for CAF Confederation Cup – Africa’s second continental competition – as Owusu and Honey bagged braces in a 7-2 win at Sudan’s Al-Ahli Wad Madani. A rotated side drew 0-0 at home to ease into the group sages where, intriguingly, they were drawn with Mahtal’s former club Horoya, Senegal’s AS Pikine and SM Sanga Balende from DR Congo.
The group began with Mahtal getting one over on his former side as Owusu’s brace downed Horoya 2-1, in which Asante set a club record attendance of 22,625. They lost 1-0 in Senegal then drew 1-1 at home to Sanga to somehow top the group, with all 4 clubs level on 4 points after 3 games. In the new year, a 4-1 win over Pikine put them in pole position before Mahtal returned to Horoya for the first time and celebrated a 2-0 victory through Boahen and Honey. That took them 3 points clear going into the final game in Senegal, where an Owusu brace ensured they won the group.
That teed up a quarter final with Burkina Faso’s KOZAF. They got dominated in the away leg and were lucky to lose 1-0, but Prempeh and Honey strikes were enough to ease them through. A continental cup final was on the line as Asante took on 1° Agosto of Angola, who knocked out Horoya in the quarters. Owusu’s goal nicked a cagey 1-0 in Angola before an even cagier 0-0 at home sent them into the final!
Now things got tough as they took on Tunisian side CS Sfaxien, who beat Egypt’s Pyramids 6-2 in the semis, in a strange two-legged final. 30,000 people descended on Tariq Al-Tayeb Park in Libya for the first leg, which got off to a slow start. Neither side threatened until Prempeh was fouled in the box, and Owusu stepped up to calmly tuck it into the bottom corner. Owusu went closest again after the break, but the Tunisians grew into the game and twice hit them on the counter late on to win 2-1.
A week later, on Mahtal’s 48th birthday, the two sides reconvened in Libya and he got the ideal present as 32 seconds in, Owusu’s throughball put Boahen in to score. Sfaxien hit the post, but Asante went down the other end and doubled their lead through another superb Boahen finish. They were in dreamland after 19 minutes, when Osman’s cross was powered home by Honey at the backpost, and it could have been better as Prempeh’s shot hit the inside of the post 5 minutes later. But, despite having just 36% possession, they managed to keep Sfaxien out until halftime. The Tunisians stepped things up a level after the break, having 10 shots in the first 15 minutes of the second half without really threatening. Mahtal went more defensive to manage the onslaught, but Sfaxien finally scored in the 4th of 3 minutes of injury time to make things nervy. But it wasn’t enough as they held on to win 3-1.
Asante Kotoko won the CAF Confederation Cup!
A few days on from the Hearts of Oak league defeat, Asante beat the leaders 3-1 in the FA Cup 2nd round. They then defanged the brilliantly-named Venomous Vipers 5-1 led by a Honey hat trick and beat Bofoakwa Tano 4-0 away to ease into the semis. They then took on King Faisal 3 days before the Confederation Cup Final second leg, so Mahtal was forced to rest the first 11 and a very young side, including new youngest player Samuel Osae at 15 years 184 days, did well to only lose 2-1.
Game-Changing Cup Success
The Confederation Cup success saw Asante Kokoto bag a game-changing £1.48m, while instilling Mahtal as the greatest Zambian football manager of all time. It also seemingly boosted Mahtal’s reputation up to Regional, which could be a big development for the future. For now though, the Zambian was firmly focused on Asante matters, as he looked ahead to trying to challenge for the league title with an exciting young squad.
Honey was the star man this season with a new club record 30 goals and 8 assists in 49 games, along with Owusu (29 goals and 5 assists), Boahen (12 goals and a club record 20 assists), Prempeh (16 goals and 7 assists) and Yaw Appiah (10 goals and 4 assists).
Mahtal was delighted to have won his first continental trophy and was really enjoying working with a young Asante team. But the pressure was on to keep his best players heading into a second season in which he was targeting the Ghanaian Premier League. But could he won another league title? Join us on Friday to find out!
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