Godfred Saka (born October 9, 1988) is a Ghanaian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who is best known for playing as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Aduana Stars Aduana Football Club ''(formerly Aduana Stars F.C)'' is a professional Football team, football club, based in Dormaa Ahenkro, Bono Region, Ghana. The club is competing in the Ghanaian Premier League. It made history by winning the Ghana Premier L ...

and the

Ghana national football team The Ghana national football team represents Ghana in men's international Association football, football. The team is named the Black Stars after the Black Star of Africa in the flag of Ghana. It is governed by the Ghana Football Association, t ...

. He went on to play for Karela United and Accra Great Olympics. He served as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

for Aduana Stars and Karela United. Saka played for Aduana Stars for 8 years and was included in the team for the Ghana Premier League that was won in the 2009–10 season and the 2017 season. At the international level, he represented Ghana for four major tournaments, playing and winning the

WAFU Nations Cup The WAFU Nations Cup (also known as the WAFU Cup of Nations or simply the WAFU Cup) is an association football competition that is contested by representative teams of the West African Football Union. History A trophy was commissioned by Presiden ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, at two

African Nations Championship The African Nations Championship, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship and commonly abbreviated as CHAN, is a biennial African association football tournament organized by the Confederation of Afri ...

tournament in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and the

COSAFA Cup The COSAFA Cup (known fully as COSAFA Senior Challenge Cup) is an annual tournament for teams from Southern Africa organized by Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA), inaugurated after the ban against the Republic of Sout ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Club career

Early career

Saka started his youth career for

Right to Dream Academy Right to Dream is a youth association football academy system based in Ghana. It started in 1999 as a residential school and training center in Accra. It is owned by the Mansour Group. It is now a multi-club multi-academy group with branches i ...

, he had some training sessions with Everton in England during his formative years as part of the Right to Dream Academy programme.

Aduana Stars

Saka joined

Ghana Premier League The Ghana Premier League is the top professional association football league in Ghana organized by the Ghana Football Association and formed in 1958 to replace a previous league incarnation, the Gold Coast Club Competition which ran from 1933 ...

club

in July 2009. Saka debuted for Aduana Stars in the

2009–10 Ghanaian Premier League The 2009–10 Ghanaian Premier League (''known as the Glo Premier League for sponsorship reasons'') season was the 51st season of top-tier football in Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situa ...

season. He played an instrumental role in helping them win the Ghana Premier League title for the first time in the club's history and setting the record as the first team to win in their debut season. He went on play for the club for 8 years serving as captain in the latter part of his time at the club. As captain, he led them to another Premier League title in the

2017 Ghanaian Premier League The 2017 Ghanaian Premier League is the 61st season of top professional association football in Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to t ...

season.

Karela United

In January 2018, Saka joined newly promoted side

Karela United Karela United FC is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Aiyinase, Ellembele District, Western Region. The club competed in the 2019 Ghanaian Normalisation Cup Competition. Karela plays their home matches at the CAM Park. History T ...

on a one-year deal after exiting Aduana as a free agent. Prior to joining Karela United, in December 2017, Saka went on trials at Nigerian club

Enyimba Aba is a city in southeastern Nigeria. It lies along the west bank of the Aba River and is at the intersection of roads leading to settlements such as Port Harcourt, Owerri, Umuahia, Ikot Ekpene, and Ikot-Abasi. Aba was established by t ...

and was on the verge of securing a permanent transfer to the club however the deal collapsed. He came out publicly and criticized the club for not being "serious about the deal" after they demanded he stayed at the club for two weeks in order to check his fitness level. Ahead of the season, he was appointed as the captain of the side ahead of their inaugural premier league season. He made his debut for Karela 17 March 2018, in a 1–0 loss to

Medeama SC Medeama Sporting Club is a Ghanaian association football club based in Tarkwa, Western Region. It was formerly known as Kessben F.C. before changing its name to Medeama Sporting Club in January 2011. History Medeama Football Club was establishe ...

. Even though the season was cancelled amid the GFA scandal, he only made 3 league appearances as his season was cut short due to injuries. He later parted ways with the club in January 2019.

Great Olympics

In November 2019, Saka signed for fellow Ghana Premier League club

Accra Great Olympics Accra Great Olympics is a Ghanaian professional Football team, football club based in Accra, Greater Accra Region, Greater Accra. The club is currently competing in the Ghana Premier League. It has won the Ghana Premier League twice, in 1970, 197 ...

as a free agent ahead of the 2019–20 season. He made his debut during the first match of the season against Ashanti Gold. The match ended in a 3–0 loss to Olympics. He went on and made 4 league appearances before the league was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana The COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first two cases in Ghana were confirmed on 12 March 2020, when two infec ...

. In June 2020, he terminated his contract with club.

International career

In November 2013, coach

Maxwell Konadu Maxwell Konadu (born 4 December 1972) is a football coach and a retired Ghana international football player. He is currently the coach of Black Leopards. Before his current post, he was formerly the manager of Glo Premier League club Asante ...

invited Saka to be included in the Ghana 30-man team for the

2013 WAFU Nations Cup The 2013 WAFU Nations Cup (known as the Go!TV WAFU Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an international home-based football competition. It was hosted in Ghana. The competition was organised by the West African Football Union (WAFU). It was originally ...

. Saka helped the Ghana national football team to a first-place finish after Ghana beat

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

, 3–1. Saka was included in the

for the

2014 African Nations Championship The 2014 African Nations Championship, known as the 2014 CHAN for short and as the Orange S.A., Orange African Nations Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 3rd edition of the biennial association football tournament organized by Confed ...

that finished runner-up.

Honours

Aduana Stars *

: 2009–10,

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Ghana *

Winner:

Runner-up:

Individual *

Most Promising Player: 2009

References

External links

* * * *Bediaku, George-Patrick 10 December 201
Interview with Örebro’s Sam Mensah: "My journey has been long"
retrieved 15 July 2021 {{DEFAULTSORT:Saka, Godfred 1988 births Living people Men's association football fullbacks Ghanaian men's footballers Ghana Premier League players Ghana men's A' international footballers 2014 African Nations Championship players Aduana Football Club players Ghana men's international footballers Right to Dream Academy players Karela United FC players Accra Great Olympics F.C. players 2011 African Nations Championship players Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Ghanaian sportsmen