• Zlatan Abednego – Showed extraordinary character

Nobody gave him a dog’s chance to return to the pitch. He was virtually written off – and con­demned into the abyss.

But he never gave up. He ban­ished the demons and fought the odds with ruthless intensity. Today, he is the Goal King of the 2022/2023 betPawa Ghana Premier League (GPL) season.

He goes by the name Abednego Tetteh and known in football circles as ‘Zlatan.’ His Swedish mentor Zlatan Ibrahimović is legendary for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range shots, and excellent technique and ball control. He is regard­ed as one of the greatest strikers of all time and is one of the most decorated footballers in the world.

Perhaps, that is where Abednego tapped his inspi­ration from when the chips were down and nearly everybody gave up on him.

After a stint with Al Hilal of Sudan three seasons ago, Abednego returned home to take a sober reflection of his career – after which he decided to join Hearts of Oak for the 2020/2021 season. It was a good move, but even though Hearts clinched the Premiership title, Zlatan had little playing time. He, therefore, decided to leave last season to join King Faisal.

Things did not work out well as he envisaged, as the former Be­chem United goal-monger only managed to score just a goal in a number of games. He was disillusioned, but temporarily.

Following another un­successful spell with Alhaji Grusah’s King Faisal, Abed­nego stumbled out again to review his career. He was down. He was dispirited. He was rattled and was wondering what holds in future for him. Impor­tantly, he never gave up. He believed he could still find his scoring boots once again.

Up next was an unexpected move to Bibiani Gold Stars. Zla­tan was determined to prove the cynics wrong. He was all-too confident of the supreme energy bottled up in his strong, resilient body.

However, as usual, many thought he was going to follow the same pat­tern. The general expectation was that there would not be any rains of goals in his ‘goal-famished’ boots. Others say he was finished!

But instead of allowing the past challenges to weigh him down, Abednego found inspiration from the slump and instead worked his socks off in Michael Osei’s Bibiani side. Day-in-day-out, he treaded steadily as he chased the pack of top goal scorers. Many saw him as pretender. He cared less – and moved on unstop­pably. That is the character of a true striker who refused to be suppressed!

Today, Abednego ‘Zlatan’ Tetteh is Ghana’s Goal King with 18 goals, up­staging the likes of Bechem United’s Wontah Hafiz Konkoni (15), Tamale City’s Sampson Eduku (14) and Asante Kotoko’s Steven Desse Mukwala (11) – all of whom had stolen an imposing lead.

Though the move to Gold Stars – considered a less pressuring envi­ronment, it took the irrepressible character of the striker to surmount the challenges ahead of him and to put a bitter, disquieting past behind him.

Tetteh becomes the sixth player in the history of the Ghana Premier­ship to win the golden shoe with 18 goals. The records say, Emmanuel Quarshie (Sekondi Hasaacas) swag­gered away the GPL golden shoe with 18 goals in 1980 – a feat which was jointly achieved in the 2002 season by Bernard Don Bortey and Charles Asampong Taylor (all of Hearts of Oak).

In the 2005 season, Prince Tagoe (Hearts of Oak) also was adjudged top scorer of the league season after scoring 18 goals at the end of the season. The feat was encored 10 years later in the 2020-2021 season when Diawusie Taylor (Karela United) finished the season as top scorer also with 18 goals.

It is quite surprising that the lad who placed second on the Goal-king chart – Konkoni, was accorded the priority ahead of Abnego – the league top scorer, when a late invitation was made for a place in the Black Stars. Some of these decisions confound the mind.

Advice to Zlatan is to continue working hard, put this stunning feat behind him and dream big into the spangling future! He still has more under his sleeve to unveil.

By John Vigah