On the 1st of December 1963,Ghana made history as the black stars won it's first African Cup of Nations tournament on home soil under then coach of the black stars C.K Gyemfi.Exactly 50 years now.
The 1963 African Cup of nations was the fourth edition of the competition.Several African nations such as Ethiopia,Tunisia and Sudan had already written their names in the books as they have all won the trophy.The format then was a little bit different from now as they were only 6 teams that participated.2 groups made up of 3 teams of which the first placed teams will face of in the finals while the runners up could only settle for 3rd place.Countries such as Ghana(host),Ethiopia,Tunisia,Sudan,Nigeria and the United Arab Republic(Egypt) all participated.2 Cities however hosted the competition,thus Accra and Kumasi.
Ghana was paired in the same groups with Ethiopia and Tunisia who had then won the trophy.Ethiopia however was the defending Champions.Ghana eventually managed to qualify from this group with 3 points after a 1-1 draw with Tunisia and beating defending champions Ethiopia 2-0.A win by then was worth 2 points.
After topping the group,Ghana advanced to the finals to face Sudan,of which the black stars won 3-0.Thanks to goals from captain Aggrey Fynn and Edward Acquah which eventually saw Ghana win her first African cup of nations trophy.
It is however recorded that Welberforce Nfum became the first ever Ghanaian to score a goal in the African cup of nation for Ghana.A tournament which saw great talents across Africa with the like of Rev.Osei Kofi,the late Edward Acquah,the late Aggrey Fynn,Kofi Pare,Welberforce Nfum etc.It also featured great footballers from the other African countries such as Jedidi from Tunisia,Worku,Tekle,Tesfaye(Ethiopia),El Shazly of the United Arab Republic(Egypt)who was eventually the top scorer of the tournament.As well as Akape,Bassey and Onya all of Nigeria.
Hassan El-Shazly won the top scorer award scoring 6 goals with Ghana's Edward Acquah scoring 4 to take away the 2nd top scorer of the tournament.
The 1963 tournament will forever be a tournament which many will not forget,although many of these recent generation were not born by then.But what we heard really testify the excitements in that particular tournament.
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