The race for the 2021/2022 Ghana Premier League golden boot is getting more interesting with keen contest between Frank Mbella Etouga of Asante Kotoko and Bright Adjei of Aduana Stars, after both players bagged hat-tricks before the end of the first round of the season.
The race may not be limited to the two players alone, but the point of interest has been the number of minutes used by both forwards to complete a hat-trick in a game this season.
Bright Adjei became the player with the fastest hat-trick so far this season after he completed his hat-trick against Eleven Wonders on Sunday within a space of 15 minutes. Adjei put Aduana Stars in the lead against Eleven Wonders at the Nana Agyemang Badu Park in the 10th minute into the first half of the game before making it 2-0 for the ‘Ogya’ lads 11 minutes late in the 21st minute. He completed his hat-trick in the 25th minute, just four means after scoring his second, making it 15 minutes in all. Bright Adjei’s time of 15 minutes hat-trick becomes 3 minutes faster than Etouga’s best of 18 minutes.
His triple strike against Eleven Wonders on Sunday took his league goal tally to 9 goals after the first 17 league matches out of the total of 34 games to complete the season, and has now leapfrogged RTU forward David Abagna to place second on the top scorers chat.
On the other hand, Asante Kotoko Cameroonian forward Frank Thierry Mbella Etouga bagged his first ever Ghana premier league hat-trick and his first for Asante Kotoko against Ashantigold Sporting Club on January 9 when the Porcupines beat their regional rivals by an emphatic 3-1 scoreline at the Baba Yara sports stadium.
In the said match, Etouga stepped forward to convert a 55th minute penalty to put Asante Kotoko in the lead against the Miners before doubling his strike 12 minutes later to make it 2-0 for the Porcupines in the 67th minute. The Cameroonian completed his hat-trick 6 minutes later in the 73rd minute, needing just 18 minutes to do the job.
The race for the golden boot is on with Asante Kotoko’s Etouga now in the lead with 11 goals. Aduana Stars’ Bright Adjei comes second with 9 goals, followed closely by David Abagna of RTU. Asante Kotoko have a game in hand against Accra Hearts of Oak come Sunday at the Accra sports stadium before the first round ends, and Etouga has the chance to extend his lead. Who wins at the end of the season? Well, fingers crossed.
