Family of the late Ghanaian football legend Wilberforce Mfum meet Otumfuo Osei Tutu II
The family of the late Ghanaian football legend Wilberforce Mfum has officially informed the Life Patron of Asante Kotoko SC, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, of his passing.
The solemn announcement was made at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi on May 22, 2025, as tradition dictates for one of Asante Kotoko’s most iconic sons.
Leading the delegation was Nana Apinkra Akwasi Awua, the Chairman of Kotoko’s Interim Management Committee (IMC) and Kontomponiaferehene.
He was accompanied by a high-profile team that included Nana Kwadwo Gyasi, CEO of Nana K. Gyasi Company Ltd, Stephen Owusu, Acting Family Head of the Hwediem Ekuona Family, Nana Gyinadu Katakyie II, Otumfuo’s Kyeame, and W.K. Mfum, eldest son of the deceased football icon.
Wilberforce Mfum passed away on May 11, 2025, at the age of 88, following a brief illness. His death marks the end of a remarkable chapter in Ghanaian and African football history.
Affectionately known as “The Bulldozer”, Mfum was a key figure in Ghana’s football rise during the 1960s.
He famously scored Ghana’s first-ever Africa Cup of Nations goal in 1963 and went on to bag two goals in the final against Sudan, helping the Black Stars win their maiden AFCON title.
Mfum earned 20 goals in 26 appearances for the national team and also represented Ghana at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
At club level, he starred for Asante Kotoko before moving abroad to play in the United States.
His club career included stints with the Baltimore Bays (1968), Ukrainian SC in the German American Soccer League (1969), and the Ukrainian Nationals in the American Soccer League (1970), where he shared the ASL top scorer title.
In 1971, he joined the New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League, contributing to the global profile of the sport in the U.S.
Mfum’s legacy lives on not just through statistics but through his pioneering contributions to Ghanaian football and his trailblazing journey abroad at a time when few African players made it to the international stage.
Funeral arrangements are expected to be announced in the coming days, as the football community and the nation prepare to bid farewell to one of Ghana’s true football legends.
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