Dan Owusu, Ishmael Addo and the Ghana Premier League top scorers since 1973

The Ghana Premier League as it is now known was formed in 1956 to replace the Gold Coast Club Competition which was played since 1933. It was not until 1958 that the first league was played with Accra Hearts of Oak winning the first competition.

Several great names have graced the league both in its early days and now. Looking back, we track down the names of the most prolific scorers for each season since 1973. Teams such as Hearts of Oak, Real Tamale United, Asante Kotoko, Boafoakwa Tano and others have produced multiple winners of the top scorer prize.

The likes of Augustine Arhinful, George Alhassan, Bernard Dong Bortey, Charles Taylor, Eric Bekoe and Prince Tagoe all laid their hands on the prize but the names that truly made it their own were different. Mahatma Otoo, Muhammed Choo, Opoku Afriyie and Yaw Annor crossed the 20-goal mark but others proved a mile.

But do you know which player won the most top scorer prize?

While Dan Owusu and Ishmael Addo remain the only two-time winners of the prize, there are many who took it home twice.  George Alhassan outscored everyone in 1977 and 1985 while playing for Accra Great Olympics.  Anane Kobo won it back-to-back with Real Tamale United in 1983 and 1984. But before Kobo was Muhammed Choo who netted 22 times for RTU in 1978 before doing 15 four years later in 1982.

Kumasi Asante Kotoko’s Opoku Afriyie took the 1979 and 1981 gongs, either side of Hassaca’s Emmanuel Quarshie’s 18-goal heroics in 1980. Before Tony Yeboah made a name in Europe, he had one in Ghana. Yeboah won it back-to-back in 1985 and 1986. Kofi Deblah laid his hands on it twice in 1996 and 1997 while playing for Goldfields.

Accra Hearts of Oak has produced the most winners of the top scorer prize. Their record-setting 10 wins is four times more than the nearest team, Ashanti Gold, formerly Obuasi Goldfields.  Asante Kotoko with 5, Real Tamale United (4) and Accra Great Olympics have also produced multiple winners. Bofoakwa Tano (3) and Dawu Youngstar (2) are the other teams that have also produced more than one winner.

Key: places left blank mean we do not have the number of goals except the player’s name.