Gold Stars, Kotoko set for Champion of Champions clash

 GHANA Premier League champions, Bibiani Gold Stars, and FA Cup winners, Asante Kotoko, are set to face-off in the 2025 Champion of Champions game at the Duns Park in Bibiani on Sunday.

The build-up to the encounter, which is to decide the best among the two, has been affected greatly by the contrasting fortunes of the two clubs as they engage in local competitions to prepare for the new football season and African club championships.

Both sides recently featured in the Ghana League Clubs Association’s (GHALCA) Top 4 competition that also had Hearts of Oak and Kpando Heart of Lions.

Gold Stars emerged winners with Kotoko failing to win a single game, earning the tag as whipping boys of the competition.

Apart from the poor results, the team’s performance has been nothing to be enthused about, and that has raised concerns over the future of Coach Karim Zito who was confirmed as Head Coach after guiding the club to a top four finish and winning the FA Cup and the Toyota Cup in South Africa.

But Coach Frimpong Manso, a legend of Kotoko, would show no mercy on the club he featured for as a player, especially when there is a huge accolade as super champions at stake.

For him and his charges, it remains another opportunity to add to their silverware, a kind of honours that could elude them for many years to come.

But Kotoko’s precarious position notwithstanding, they remain a threat to Gold Stars and the Stars cannot afford to underestimate them as they boast of the personnel to turn their fortunes around when the stakes are high.

 By Andrew Nortey