The scanty reports in the media about the death of Emmanuel Christian Briandt,one of the most distinguished footballers Ghana has produced and first captain of the senior national football team Black Stars has confirmed the urgent need for the establishment of a sports hall of fame to immortalize our past sporting heroes.

At the moment there is very little on record to depict the exploits of Ghana’s sports heroes and the current generation of media practitioners cannot be faulted to think that “the beautiful ones are not yet born”. It was this gaping vacuum the late Finance Minister Kwadwo Baah Wiredu was determined to fill, when he was in charge of sports and he set up a body to identify and honour Ghana’s past sporting personalities.

The naming of Accra sports stadium after the late sports administration supremo Ohene Djan and the Kumasi sports stadium after the late football legend Baba Yara was the beginning of the exercise. The nation was told that it was an ongoing exercise but it was surprisingly truncated when Baah Wiredu left the Sports Ministry.

I have to admit that I have a soft heart for this sports hall of fame concept because I love sports history and incidentally I was a member of the committee set up by the late Baah Wiredu to identify and recommend past heroes for honours. I will wholeheartedly accept it if I am accused of being an interested party. After such a strenuous exercise it is sad to see reports gather dust in the archives.

I would like to think that Stephen Appiah and his present generation of the Black Stars would love to read about the first ever captain of the Black Stars, a cool and collected defender who led the team to several international laurels half a century ago much as they would like the future generation to know fifty years to come that they were the first to take Ghana to the World Cup in 2006.

Born 79 years ago, Briandt died on Oct. 18 at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra after a protracted ill health.

In his heydays, in addition to being the first captain of the Black Stars and also captain of Accra Hearts of Oak, he was also one of the first top Ghanaian footballers to be trained as a coach together with former wizard dribbler James Adjei of Asante Kotoko fame. The two gentlemen undertook an intensive coaching course at the Cologne Sports Academy in Germany in 1958-59. As a follow up to the massive training of Ghanaian coaches, Sports Director Ohene Djan arranged a training scheme for ten more coaches in Czechoslovakia and West Germany in 1961. They were Asebi Boakye, Ben Sissuh, Tim Darbah, Kwame Appiah, Ben Koufie, A.K. Ekudi, Solomon Gray, K.N.Nketia, G.S.Daramanu and R.M.Aggrey.

C.K.Gyamfi had earlier returned from an attachment practical coaching course with Fortuna Düsseldorf in Germany.

For some inexplicable reasons, Chris Briandt not too long after his arrival from Germany, abandoned the coaching profession and returned to his managerial position at Kingsway Stores in Accra until his retirement to a quiet private life.

The first time Briandt was seen at a public function was in 2004 during the first National Sports Awards at Alisa Hotel in Accra organized by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.

May he rest in peace.