Asante Kotoko former captain and goalkeeper Felix Annan has expressed satisfaction of the performance of his former club this season, especially the individual output of striker Frank Mbella Etouga who is the club and the 2021/22 league season’s current top scorer.
The Cameroonian forward joined the Porcupine Warriors at commencement of the current season, and has been arguably the club’s greatest signing of the season. Etouga is currently the leading scorer in the league with 15 goals (5 penalty goals), and is obviously Asante Kotoko top scorer in the season so far.
On the contrary, the Cameroonian has managed to score on just one occasion away from home, which came against Legon Cities in Accra where Asante Kotoko won by 2-0 with Etouga scoring both goals. He has since not scored away from home, and with five of his 15 goals also coming from the penalty spot, he has been criticised by Bechem United head coach, Kassim Mingle and Accra Hearts of Oak skipper Fatawu Mohammed for only scoring at home, and benefiting mostly from the 12-yard kicks.
“The Etouga he only scores goals in their home; away matches he can’t score goals. You watch the statistics you will see, all the goals he scored are home goals”, coach Mingle told ghanasportspage.com in an interview on March 5.
Comparing Mbella’s prowess to other strikers in the domestic league, Fatawu Mohammed insisted that Frank Mbella Etouga is not an exceptional player nor better than other strikers in the league, because he mostly rides on the back of penalty goals to swell his figures.
“Scoring from a penalty spot doesn’t make you a top striker”, Fatawu told Adikanfo FM in an interview.
In an interaction with ghanasportspage.com, former Asante Kotoko gloves man, Felix Annan hopped into the defence of the Cameroonian, hailing his quality, saying, he wishes to have shared the stage with Etouga during his days at Kotoko.
“If you look at the boy [Etouga], the boy is a quality player, he is a very quality player”, Annan said in response to Fatawu’s assessment.
“Sometime ago I even said that I wish he was at the club during my time so we played together. He is a very quality player. It’s not he scoring penalty goals, I don’t know if they thing penalties are not part of goals because it’s not easy for you to always score a penalty goal”.
“Even he has missed one penalty [against Elmina Sharks in Elmina] but he’s done well. If you look at his goals and his work rate the things he does you could see it’s very exceptional, and for me he is very good signing and recruitment done by the officials [of the club] which is very good”, Annan admired.
