The Ministry of Youth and Sports has joined a tall list of persons and organizations who have extended a hand of good wishes to Kumasi Asante Kotoko on the occasion of the club's 85th anniversary.

Undoubtedly the biggest and most successful club was founded exactly 85 years ago in the garden city of Kumasi and since the club has brought so much joy, hope and believe to its supporters and sympathizers alike.

Opanin Kwasi Kuma of Nyankyerenease in Kumasi decided to form a football club that is presently known and called Kumasi Asante Kotoko in 1926.

Opanin Kwasi Kumah, a native of Nyankyerenease near Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, was a chauffeur to an English man and military officer, a Colonel Ross.

With co-operation from his good friend, L.Y.Asamoah, he formed the Ashanti United Football Club in 1926.

Five years later the team was renamed Kumasi Titanics.

The team was really handicapped because most of the players worked in government organizations like the Prisons and Railways and had been transferred from Kumasi.

"Kumasi Titanics" did not find enough luck in their new name and in 1934 they adopted a more powerful name, Mighty Atoms.

Still the club did not see much progress and in 1935, Mr J.S.K. Frimpong, popularly called Teacher Frimpong, then a teacher of the Kumasi Government School who had all the time shown interest in the club, organized some men from his school and proposed a change of name from "Kumasi Titanics" to Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club.

Permission had to be obtained from the Asantehene (King of the Kingdom of Ashanti) because the name "Kotoko", meaning "Porcupine" is the official symbol of the Ashanti nation. The Asantehene, Nana Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, became the first life patron of the club.

Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club was subsequently formally founded in 1935.

Since then the club has achieved many successes winning the Ghana Premier League title 23, the CAF Champions League title twice, the Ghana Super Cup 3 times, the GHALCA Top 4 title twice among others.

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