Eleven Is To One – As part of reviewing our remarkable season we bring another feature of Inter Allies goal king who is delighted to finish the season as the club’s top scorer.
Inter Allies scored a total of 38 goals in their debut top flight season in the country, 31 and 7 in the Premier League and the FA Cup respectively. Out of these 38 goals our season’s goal poacher Abdul Fatawu Safiu scored 7 of them.
The former Ghana under-20 striker didn’t start the season with Inter Allies as he was plying his trade with Vimmerby IF in Sweden, he later joined the team in the January transfer window.
His seven goals and 4 assists in 14 appearances helped Inter Allies to reach the MTN FA Cup final and a creditable 6th place finish in the Ghana Premier League (First Capital Plus Premier League).
Due to the club’s tactical formation of 4-3-3 marshal-led by head coach Hebert Addo, the striker was tossed upfront from the right to the arrow-head role due to his versatility skills.
He scored in five of the nine games that he started as the main striker with an assist. From the right where he played as an auxiliary striker, he scored two goals and grabbed three assists in the remaining 5 games making it 7 goals in 14 games.
“I love to be the in this team, it’s a group of fantastic players who give competition in every department, so to come back in January to make this feat is a good thing and I give the ultimate thanks to Almighty Allah,” he toldww.interalliesfc.com
Scoring 7 goals in 14 games constitute one goal in every two games which is relatively good for a prolific striker in this part of the world.
The reliable striker will always remember the all important goal in the semi final of the FA Cup to push the club to a historic final, also his late free kick that won all three points for Inter Allies against eventual league winners Asante Kotoko in Accra.
“Those two strikes where fantastic, they always come to my mind first anytime I think of this season. We were really suffering under Feyenoord until Yamoah sent that ‘delicious’ cross for me to tap home, thanks Fred (Yamoah). What makes this goal special is, it took us to the final of the MTN FA Cup and you could feel the joy in everybody, we were so happy – the feeling is still the same now.”
“We really wanted to win the match against Kotoko, so we went in all out we were the better side throughout but the goal wasn’t coming. When the referee awarded the free-kick it was in Niare’s range so I told him, friend spare me this one. Thanks to Allah the strike was so on point to the back of the net, the happiness after the goal was uncontrollable, it was so late and we loved the win badly.”
Safiu is not very far from the top strikers in the world in terms of ability, certainly he has the ability to get there.
He is industrious, hardworking with sharp reflexes, excellent aerial abilities and torments defenders with his tireless stamina.
