Before July 2025, the name Kwasi Sibo would have been unfamiliar. Even among Ghanaians, unless you were a die-hard football fan, it is not a name you would not readily recognize.
Football fans may recognize the name for two reasons.
One of them is Simon Sibo, Kwasi’s elder brother, who currently plays for Sliema Wanderers in Malta. He won hearts when he captained the famous Liberty Professionals many years ago. He also represented Ghana at the Under-20 and Under-23 levels.
The other reason would be Kwasi’s performance against Real Madrid in La Liga on 24th August. When Real Madrid play, the world, including Ghanaians, pays attention. So that match exposed him to millions of eyeballs.
Otherwise, the name Sibo would be known because of Paa Solo and his cousin, Kennedy; the men who formed the “Sibo Brothers” musical group.
Not anymore. That has changed.
A different Sibo
In August, Kwasi Sibo was at the other end of a phone call that would forever change his life.
“Coach Otto Addo called me and said he had been monitoring me for a while. So I was quite excited. We spoke about my performances and what he has seen, the areas I needed to improve on, and how I could do that,” he says with an unmistakable sense of pride and fulfillment.
“He also mentioned the upcoming qualifiers against Chad and Mali. But he did not say that they were going to call me,” he continued.
That phone call was followed by another conversation with Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association, Alex Asante.
On September 4, and exactly a month to the date of that conversation, he received a three-word message from Alex Asante; ‘’Are you ready?’’
His response was simple. ‘‘I was born ready, Mr. Asante,’’ he says with a confident, tone, as if to re-enact his demeanor on the day of that conversation.
That same day, he was on the next flight from Asturias Airport (OVD) to Kotoka International Airport.
At Kotoko International Airport, he got his first taste of the exposure that comes with representing Ghana.
A new Black Star
‘‘At the airport, one of the immigration officers, a lady, asked me to remove the cap I was wearing because I looked familiar. When I did, she mentioned my name and said – So you are the one who was called up at the last minute to come and score goals for Ghana,’’ he told me at his Weija residence.
On Sunday night, Sibo was the last Black Star player to leave the Alisa Hotel.
He was forced to spend an inordinate amount of time taking pictures with this public official or that one. He dared not refuse any of them. There were fan groups too, including one that had come all the way from Kumasi, where Sibo cut his teeth.
He was knackered, but acting on good counsel and fueled by the excitement of securing Ghana’s qualification for next year’s World Cup, Sibo made time for everyone. Almost everyone.
By 12:30 AM (four hours after the match), there were still people around waiting to shake Sibo’s hand.
In the end, not everyone could be attended to.
Even a scheduled interview with JoySports had to be cancelled.
‘‘Sometimes, I feel like I am living in a dream. From Liga 2 with Oviedo, who had not played in La Liga in 24 years. We qualified for La Liga, now I have played against Vinicius Jnr and Mbappe, and Pedri and Lewandowski, you know’’ he says as his eyes lit up with remarkable luminescence.
As if to relive the moment and drink it all in, there is a brief pause.
He breaks eye contact to stare at God-knows-what before he continues.
‘‘In August, I played against Thomas Partey and he did not really know me. But he recognized that I was a Ghanaian because of my name. That day, I asked for his jersey and he gave it to me after the match. Just one month later, I was playing alongside him in the Black Stars. These are guys I used to watch on television just three months ago.’’
But it is all real and could get even better for him.
Ceteris paribus, Sibo is expected to make Ghana’s squad for next year’s World Cup. If he does, he will be Ghana’s first choice holding midfielder and Thomas Partey’s partner.
It will be the climax of a dream that first started when he left Ghana in 2017.
Out with the old…
To realize it, he had to lose a part of himself.
‘‘I have not always been a holding midfielder,’’ he says with an affiliative smile.
‘‘I started as an attacking midfielder who loved to pass the ball around but also keep it and dribble, you know, have fun on the pitch.’’
There is a hint of seriousness, conveying the significance of the fact and the seminal event of his re-profiling.
Since landing in the Zvartnots International Airport in 2017, Sibo has been re-educated to be the man who screens the defense and chases opponents around for the ball.
It was difficult, but once he grasped the concept of it, the other aspects – distribution and receiving, were not as hard.
Sibo had been prepared for it.
Thanks in no small part to Simon Sibo’s success in the Ghana Premier League and various national teams, Kwasi had a good mix of hunger for success.
Family tragedy
But a year before he made the trip to Armenia, his mum, Jane Frances Bamumhara, passed away in 2016.
‘‘My mother was my backbone.’’
His tone drops, noticeably. His gaze is firm and sharp, shifting away from the camera to focus on the ground. There is a brief pause to find the right words to capture the essence of what his mother represented.
‘‘She was my motivation. She was everything to me and it hurts that she is not here today,’’ he musters.
To understand how deeply attached Sibo is to the late Jane Frances, you only need to look at his arm.
On his wrist, sits a tattoo of his mother’s name.
His forearm bears an image of his late mother.
He literally wears his mother on his arm and will do that for the rest of his life.
That is why there is no excitement when he talks about her demise and the period that followed.
After all, this is also the account of how, at just 19 years old, and having freshly lost his mother, he had to grow up quickly in a country where the people predominantly spoke Armenian and Russian.
In a land where, unlike anywhere in Ghana, the temperatures could go as low as -7 °С. In Artsakh where the club was based, temperatures could range between 4 to 6 °С in a kind winter.
Since then, Sibo has been at seven other clubs in eight years – Watford, Udinese, Skënderbeu Korçë, Deportiva Ibiza, Betis B, Amorebieta and Real Oviedo in seven years.
At Oviedo, Sibo has manifested what Watford, then in the Premier League, saw in 2019.
When Oviedo do not have the ball, which is a lot of the time, Sibo leads the wolf pack as they hound opponents into mistakes and out of possession.
When they succeed, Sibo switches from chief-hound to conductor, distributing the ball with surgeon’s precision.
In Spain, players are trained to be expressive and comfortable with the ball. That means the majority of midfielders are press resistant.
In that regard, Sibo’s early learnings as an attacking midfielder serves him well.
As Ghanaian fans saw against Mali and later Central African Republic and Comoros, he can always find that extra second to step away from his marker, drop a shoulder to displace them or simply carry the ball forward until a better, more advanced option arrives.
His pass selection has not been mentioned as much. Not because it is not great, but this is just how Ghanaians approve of their holding midfielders.
If they do not complain about your passing, it means they are happy with it.
Ask Anthony Annan or Derek Boateng, who both played as Ghana’s deepest midfielders on different occasions.
The coaches approve of it too. That is why since his arrival, Sibo has started every game for Ghana.
Yet, he knows he still has a lot to give.
‘‘I still want to improve,’’ he says while smiling.
But a second later, the smile fades into a neutral, and finally, a serious look.
‘‘I want to test myself against the best players in the world. I want to play on the big stages.’’
Playing against both Real Madrid and Barcelona means he has already checked those boxes.
There is still more to come, and if he chooses to ‘return’ to the Premier League at the end of his contract next year, Sibo will get that opportunity.
There is no shortage of ambition here.
‘‘I think we can win the World Cup. We certainly have the quality, you know and we are united. That is a big factor because for teams with such talent, they are hard to break if they are united.’’
That unwavering faith in himself and his teammates, runs in the family.
Always and forever
‘‘When I come down for holidays, Simon still trains me. He is still my coach and every now and then, he will teach me a trick or two,’’ he says gleefully.
‘‘I think playing for Ghana is the fulfilment of a family dream. My brothers have always wanted one of us to play for the Black Stars.’’
‘‘In my case, I have not even played for any of the national teams. And I was unlucky because each time a youth tournament was close, I was over the age limit and too young for the next youth team,’’ he says with a hint of regret, in a reflective tone.
Now though, there are no age limits.
The only barriers here, are the ones he has created to safe guard his position as Ghana’s first choice holding midfielder.
It has taken him eight years to finally get here, but Kwasi Sibo looks ready for an international career and a good run in Europe’s elite leagues.
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
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