Former Ghana Table Tennis star, Nana Yaw Boateng
Former Ghana Table Tennis star, Nana Yaw Boateng, has opened up on how he switched from football to become a champion in table tennis.
Boateng started off as a footballer but later switched to table tennis due to an incident involving his brother.
According to him, his brother was a footballer who played at the regional level but had his career cut short because he wasn’t able to pay bribe to get a place on the team.
Nana Yaw Boateng in an interview on Happy FM’s, Where Are They program? indicated that his brother’s ordeal made him change his mind about playing football.
“I started off as a footballer, I played football to the regional level but at a point, I had to choose between football and table tennis. I chose table tennis because my senior brother played football but he had to pay money to secure a position on the team even though he had the talent.
We couldn’t afford the money and he lost out. So I opted for table tennis because it is an individual sport and you have to prove that you are the best. In soccer, you can’t prove you are the best, because they can choose whoever they want. In table tennis, it doesn’t work that way.”
Nana Yaw Frimpong was ranked first among a list of eight senior male players released by the Ghana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) in 2003.
The monthly ranking was based on the performance of players at the ATL championship held at Koforidua.
Nana Yaw Boateng emerged as the National U-17 Table Tennis Champion in 2003 after defeating Solomon Ackono.