Chelsea share their success to the youth of Ghana

For a team as successful as Chelsea, success won’t mean so much if it is restricted on the pitch. Of course, the Blues know that. That’s why they’re bringing that success off the pitch, all the way to Ghana for their global charity partnership with Right to Play. The group composed of the Special One Jose Mourinho, five young players, and several coaches arrived in Accra, the country’s capital Tuesday night, for their 5-day visit to the African country.

Right to Play is a 6-year partnership that aims to improve lives of children in the most disadvantaged countries through the sport that unifies the world and attain development, health and peace. Taken from the organization’s website,

Right To Play uses specially-designed sport and play programmes to improve health, build life skills, and foster peace for children and communities affected by war, poverty, disease. Working in both the humanitarian and development contexts, Right To Play has projects in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Right To Play is the only global-scale implementer of Sport for Development and Peace programmes and takes an active role in driving research and policy development in this area and in supporting children’s rights.

Right To Play focuses on four strategic program areas: Basic Education and Child Development, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Peace Education, and Community Development and Participation.

Mourinho traveled with his goalkeeper coach, Silvino Louro, and Neil Bath who is heading a team of coaches from Chelsea’s Academy. While there are no star players who went with JM, well except for the Ghanaian champ and the club’s player of the year Michael Essien, some of the club’s youth are there to fulfill the mission of the partnership. Michael Mancienne and Jimmy Smith, both on loan at QPR last season, recent first team debutant Sam Hutchinson, England Under 19 international Jack Cork and England Under 17s defender Nana Ofori-Twumasi, were the five players who traveled with the team.

Former Chelsea captain and Accra-born Marcel Desailly is also there to show his support.

Their first day filled by a press conference and coaching activity started with a call from Ghanaian Minister of Sport in the morning, plus a welcome in the front page of a sports paper saying ‘Akwaaba Jose!’ (Welcome Jose!). Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Sport also welcomed the Blues by saying,

“I would like to welcome Mr. Mourinho and the Chelsea party to Ghana.

“The work they will be doing in Ghana is a great thing. We look forward to their work with the coaches and children of Right To Play. Chelsea is a great team and of course it has a great Ghana player in Essien. Chelsea is now very popular in Ghana and we hope that continues.”

In return, JM presented him with a kit signed by Essien and the rest of the players. The day ended with an event hosted by the British High Commission.

In a press conference, Mourinho took the opportunity to speak well of having Africans in the team. He admired the players’ craving for success as he saw in Essien, Drogba, Geremi, Kalou and Obi Mikel. He also mentioned Claude Makelele and Lasanna Diarra who have African blood. He said about them,

“And what I have found with these boys is that they are people with big desire to succeed. They know the meaning of the group, the meaning of the friendship, co-operation, solidarity and they are very, very nice people.

“I think we have in Chelsea a great example of what the world is all about. Many different cultures, races and colours but we feel a family, we live as a family and we are a family.

How can he not mention Ghana’s favorite personality and star midfielder Michael Essien?

“People like to talk about Michael Essien, saying he is a great football player, but I prefer to say he is a great man. We are very, very happy to have him with us and Ghana should be very proud, not just because he is a great player but because of the way he behaves in sport and in society. The message he leaves in Europe from an African country, I think you should be very proud.”

Thinking about the problem of not having so many players out for the African Nations’ Cup, he also took the opportunity to make public his wishes of having the Ghanaian player to stay with the team for 2 more weeks.

“I hope he can come here and help Ghana to be successful in your African Nations Cup, played in your home, and I also hope you understand that I need him so much that you will leave him with me two more weeks.”

“Something we can understand and something we don’t want to change is the love and passion every one of our players has to play for their countries.

“What I will try and I don’t know if people will be open to it, is to lose the players just for the competition and not 15 days before the competition.

“If we lose the players to play in the competition, it is something you can accept. It is more difficult to accept that for 15 days the players are doing some training while Chelsea is playing some very important matches”

The training was a long and tiring session. Eighty-five young Ghanians from different sources took part in an Academy-based routine teaching them the techniques used by the Chelsea first team, guided by Chelsea staff as well as local Right to Play coaches. Apart from the players, however, fans also swarmed as they were allowed to enter the premises, standing only at the corner and catch sight of the training and of the Special One whose name was chanted like never before. Despite an exhausting day, it was made worth it by the success of the training and the progress they’ve made. As sharing is the aim, they also left all the equipment used for future use of local coaches and the kids. T-shirts and pens were also handed out.