Former Black Stars midfielder, Sulley Ali Muntari has revealed that he had to take a risk of ‘disrespecting’ his ever-loving mother, Hajia Kande to become successful.
Sulley’s love for his deceased mother is an open secret and he reaffirmed it in an interview with Dan Kweku Yeboah: “she was my everything, she is my everything and now she has given me the strength to take care of my siblings which I was ready for.”
In the interview, Sulley said there is one person he cannot turn deaf ears to and that is his mother, “for my mum, whatever she says I do it.”
But he recalled a time when for the very first time in his life, he had to choose between his mother’s wish and his ambition of playing in Europe.
Sulley Muntari narrated that, his mother wanted him to play for Ghanaian giants Asante Kotoko while he was yearning to play in Europe because he believed it was the only way to change the fortunes of his family.
He said he almost signed for Kotoko as his mum wished, but he missed Kotoko’s Chief Executive officer, Hebert Mensah at the entrance.
“There was one time we went to Kumasi. We were going to Herbert Mensah but while our car was entering, his car was going out. So, I missed him. I would have definitely signed if I had met him.”
After not tying himself to Kotoko, Sulley took the opportunity to be more thoughtful about his career and how he could change his family’s situation.
Following a long thoughtful moment, he decided to “disrespect” his mother for the very first time.
“But then I came back and sat down. At that age, looking at my mum, and my siblings where we were coming from, I was like ‘for the first time in my life, I will disrespect my mum’. Meaning I won’t listen to what she was saying and pause (Playing for Kotoko) to have a great future. I could see there was a future for it, in the long term.”
He said he never went back to look for Herbet, because he wanted to play in Europe like Michael Essien, Derek Boateng, and a couple of others who were all at the U-20 camp.
“No, they(Kotoko) didn’t see me again. So when I went back to camp, Sly spoke to me. I saw Derek, Essien, and Obodae. They were young and they played for Ajax, Panatheniacos, Bastia and all these big teams. Ibrahim Razak was also playing for Italy. And also I thought about it, looking at old Kotoko, Awudu Adama, even Joe Henricks wasn’t there, Prince Adu Poku, the Stephen Oduros and the likes, top, top players. For me, I would come from school to play only two matches and they will put me on the bench. Because I’ve seen top, top Kotoko players who couldn’t make any impact, so from colts straight to the first team was going to be difficult. So I thought of all these aspects and I said no. Mum, I’m sorry. There was no one cedi at home. No cedi to buy foodstuff and all that,” he said.
Sulley continued that even though his mum was disappointed, his decision was the right way to make his mother whip the benefits of her investment in his career.
“Yes(she was disappointed), but she had invested her whole life(in me). I can come from camp and there is no money. The last one that she should have spent on my siblings, she will say “take it”. Then she will go and hustle from the side. So all of these things pushed to make my own decision to go and I’ve never regretted it.”
Sulley said Hajia Kande came around after he left the shores of Ghana when Alhaji Sly Tetteh secured trials for him at Manchester United.
“She was angry a little bit but after when I left the country(she accepted it). Sly took me right away to Manchester United.”
Although his mother passed away in 2021, she lived to enjoy the fruit of her investments. Sulley is one of the wealthy ex-Ghanaian footballers but prefers to keep a low profile on his wealth.
Source: Ghanaweb