After taking such a long break from writing to you in my blog, I am happy to tell you that I am back in full swing with my updates and on the developments concerning my career and anything surrounding it.
I must applaud the Stepapp (www.stepapp.com) team for keeping you constantly informed on my progress and the developments on my recovery from injury.
As you already know I have been out of action since I played for my country at the four-nation tournament in November last year.
First of all I want to say thanks to all the fans across the world who sent emails with words of encouragement during the difficult times. I must assure you all that your mails kept me going and because I have been away in Switzerland and Italy concentrating on my recovery I haven’t had the time to properly update you on my progress as I had wanted.
Now that everything has come to a head, I can begin to give you first hand information on my progress.
On my health, by the grace of God and with your prayers as well as the work of my doctors and personal trainers, I can announce that I am back to full fitness. Following my recovery in Switzerland and Turin, I travelled to Brescia where my personal trainer lives and works with the local club. While I was working on my fitness and conditioning, Brescia agreed for me to train with the club to help me regain match fitness.
After training with them and playing several friendly matches I can announce that I am now match fit. I want to thank the officials of Brescia for giving me the opportunity to train with them and also my personal trainer Enrique Miguel for putting it all together. I am preparing to return to action for a club and my country.
I say for a club and my country because of lot of fans from Fenerbahce have also written asking about my future with the club.
For the fans of Fenerbahce, I am sad to announce that after giving my all to this club I personally love, the management have made it impossible for me stay. Two seasons ago even when I was injured I agreed to play for Fenerbahce just to make sure we won the title and I am happy that I did because of my commitment to the club.
It is public knowledge that after that season, I underwent surgery to help me recover from an injury but unfortunately the doctors provided by the club did the job but there were complications from the surgery.
Since then there has been some dishonest briefings to the Turkish media about the complications from the surgery with those making the briefings trying hard to imply that the complication from the surgery is hereditary but that assertion has been rubbished by the doctors in Italy.
Further statements from the club implying that they didn’t give me permission to go to Italy for treatment and to support my team-mates at the African Cup of Nations which was hosted by my country in January were all insincere press briefings against me.
I can confirm that it was with the blessing of Fenerbahce, that I travelled to Brescia.
I went with the Turkish club’s vice president Mr. Murat Ozaydinli and the president’s brother Mr. Ali Yildrim for treatment and it was at this point that I received an invitation from my country to support my team-mates during the African Cup of Nations.
They granted me the permission to go to Ghana and return to Brescia for treatment. While I was in Ghana the club forcibly sought to freeze my registration to allow them to use another foreign player.
I denied them the permission because they had not fully told me what freezing my contract meant and also I thought it was insensitive and unethical at a time that I was hoping to return to action from the injury I suffered serving the club and the complications associated with it.
As soon as I refused them permission, they rushed to report me to FIFA saying they didn’t know my whereabouts and subsequently they stopped paying my salary.
The fans of Fenerbahce have supported me throughout this case and have been disgusted at the treatment meted out to me, insisting I must be treated humanely.
Since they have stopped paying my salary I am now a free agent and I expect that status to be confirmed by FIFA later this month.
With the support I received from the Fenerbahce fans during the difficult times, I truly wanted to return to the club to help bring them glory but I am sad to say that the management have made it practically impossible.
I am a true Fenerbahce fan and will always be. When things change at the management level in future I will never rule out returning to serve the club in any position in future. I pray the club does well in this season’s league and the Champions League and many years to come. If time permits I will visit them in Istanbul in future to give my support to the club.
On my injury front, this is the longest I have stayed out of action in my career and that’s only because of the complications as I was originally expected to be back four weeks after the surgery. My career has been injury free apart from the recent setback and I can assure you that I am even better than before.
I hope to get my next club destination sorted out soon and will keep you informed via this medium. I have received many emails from fans around the world and I am happy to hear from all the fans. I will keep you informed on any developments.
I will like to welcome Mr. Milovan Rajevac as the new coach of the Ghana national team. There have been different opinions expressed on the choice of the coach but I will plead with all Ghanaians to work together so the country can qualify for the 2010 World Cup to be staged in Africa. We dont want to sit at home and watch other African countries play at the tournament in South Africa.
My colleagues and I who are currently playing for the Black Stars will want the whole nation to unite and give coach Rajevac all the needed support so that we can succeed in the dreams of qualifying for the World Cup for our country. I respect everyone's opinions on this but i will urge us all to please support the man in charge now.
Keep Stepping App and there will be more news coming soon
