Feature: The next big thing to emerge from Right to Dream Academy and Ghana football

By Ameenu Shardow, follow on Twitter @alooameenu

Right from the warm ups, the immense talent of Divine Yassamba Narh was vaguely evident for those present to see the annual match between the Right to Dream Academy professionals and the current inmates.

The 17-year-old didn't take long to convince almost everyone present for Thursday's game he is clearly the next in line to make the big leap from an academy boy into the real professional he is destined to be.

I honestly believe he is nothing like all the previous Right to Dream Academy graduates who have eventually hit the big time in Europe. He is special.

And the most admiring thing about this chap was the calm manner in which he went about bossing the midfield by doing the simple things in football and doing it with a great deal of accuracy.

His passes, shimmies, accelerates, controls, tackles and his general reading of the game was simply heart warming.

‘Mallam’ as he is affectionately called at the academy was never rushed into making a pass he never wanted to throughout the game against players who are far experienced, knowledgeable and with physical presence than he is.

He was the epitome of calmness in midfield and for a 17-year-old, such an attribute is very hard to come by nowadays.

"I told him - the no.14 - he is a very good player and that he should work on adding goals to his game to make him the complete player," Laryea Kingston noted of the young chap recruited from Obuasi after the match which quite expectedly saw the Professionals beat their juniors 3-2.

The most fascinating things about this young boy who hails from Wa is his complete down to earth character despite knowing he will eventually by perhaps one of the biggest blessing to football, all things being equal.

He yearns to take inspiration from his seniors – the likes of Abdul Majeed Waris, King Osei Gyan, David Accam and the like – in his pursuit t attain greatness.

“This is basically what we’ve been doing in this academy. Trying to educate people in football,” he told GHANAsoccernet.com of his immense talent.

“I have been learning football everyday so I have mastered in it. So when it comes to games I always try to do my best.

“They always tell me how good I am especially the seniors whenever they come down but I try to learn more from them.”

It came as absolutely no surprise at all that later that night, he was awarded the Best Academy Player of Year in the annual Right to Dream end of year awards ceremony.

What more, Narh is coming through an increasingly developing facility at Right to Dream.

They have added two more high quality training pitches since the last time I visited the site and have completed the building which now houses the technical directorate.

They have brought in more equipments to improve the delivery of healthcare in the academy while opening their ultra-modern gymnasium.

Yassamba Narh turns 18 next April but his performance on Thursday leaves me in no doubt whatsoever he will go on to do wonderful things in football backed by the best competent staff, coaches and teachers, the young chap is well on his way to greatness.