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“AKWAABA.”
That was
the first word in his native Ga language (meaning
“welcome”) that Ayi Nii Aryee heard after a long and
tiring 15-hour flight from Manila to Accra International
Airport in Ghana.
There
were newspaper reporters and television crews waiting to
interview Aryee, who had become something of an
international news sensation after being stuck in an
airport terminal for six months. His incarceration
eerily mimicked the plight of the main character in the
Tom Hanks movie The Terminal.
“All I
remember was answering a few questions then wanting to
go see my parents,” recalls Aryee of his long-delayed
homecoming. Aside from the reporters, his siblings and
friends were on hand to pick him up at the airport. “It
was good to be back and free.” His friends teased him
that he had become a football story but not in the
manner he wanted.
Aryee’s
dreams of glory on the pitch have taken him across Ghana
in Western Africa to Singapore and the Philippines in
Southeast Asia. Back in Ghana, he won the Most Valuable
Player award in his secondary school competition where
he scored an astounding 24 goals in only 16 matches.
His
prodigious efforts earned him a spot in the Under-17
National Team in the African Cup where his Black
Starlets (as Ghana’s junior national team is known) lost
to perennial African powerhouse Nigeria, 2-1.
After
being lured to play for Sporting Afrique in the S-League
of Singapore where things didn’t work out, the then
17-year-old African found himself stuck in the airport
terminal of Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (as
the former American Clark Air Base is now known) for six
months.
Confined
to the airport terminal and later to the nearby fire
station, Aryee trained by himself every day. He even
celebrated his 18th birthday (on November 18) in the
company of firemen and a few well wishers.
Manila-based football team Union FC helped him through
those long lonely months by providing food, some money,
and eventually a ticket back home to Ghana on January
11. But his stay in his home country was short, for he
was invited back with an offer to play in the
Philippines.
After
flying back in on January 31, Aryee felt a little
trepidation upon disembarking that he would be held once
more at the airport. He heaved a sigh of relief when he
was waived through immigration. Sadly though the initial
offer to play for Ateneo de Manila University was
nothing more than false representation.
Disheartened, he whiled the time away playing a few
games for Union FC in the recent Ang Liga tournament
where he scored four goals in five matches and teaching
in the football club’s youth academy.
“It was
fulfilling teaching kids because I love working with
them,” smiles the young African who led his charges to
two seven-a-side championships recently.
Aryee’s
patience and perseverance are about to pay off. He’s
been offered a scholarship to the University of the
Philippines where he’ll be taking up Sports Science. And
that means after a year of residency, he will be suiting
up for the UP Maroon booters in the University Athletic
Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 71’s
football tournament.
And as
if to make up for all the lost time, his country’s
national team has invited him to be a part of the side
that will be competing for an Olympic berth in Beijing
in 2008.
“By the
grace of God, I’ve been blessed,” smiles the young
Ghanaian. “I hope that I can just truly be worthy by
giving it back.”
“The
Philippines has been kind to me,” says Aryee. “Football
has taken me to different places and it’s been an
adventure that has been difficult and hard. But I have
met people who have shown me that there is goodness in
this world.”
And the
dream continues. |
