ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- A year ago, Ezekiel Ansah said he wanted to eventually bring an NFL game to Africa. A native of Ghana, Ansah arrived in the United States a hopeful basketball player and track athlete heading to BYU.
At the school, after he didn’t make the basketball team and ran track, he found football. It’s a sport that has made him millions and now, while he hasn’t been able to bring the NFL to Ghana, he’s doing the next best thing.
Ansah, as part of the launch of his Ezekiel Ansah Foundation, is planning to hold a football camp in Ghana in July to help grow the game that has turned into his profession.
“We’re really going to start from scratch,” Ansah said. “Some videos. There’s the pros and cons of the game and just continue from there.”
Ansah started his foundation earlier this year to help promote physical education in his home country and give the children of Ghana more opportunities related to sports. He has also adopted a children’s hospital in Accra to try and improve resources as well.
This has been something Ansah has wanted to do for a while -- he’s often given back in small ways in the United States, from donating water bottles during the Flint water crisis to giving money for children from low-income housing to enjoy a Detroit Tigers game.
His foundation is the next step for that.
“It means a lot,” Ansah said. “You know, coming here to America to study and to get educated, I never grew up going to a football camp or a soccer camp or looking up to somebody to put something like that for the kids to follow.
“Here in America, there’s always football camps or soccer camps and these kids go starting at a young age. I’m just trying to do the same thing for my people.”
Ansah isn’t the first NFL player to run a football camp in Ghana as David Clowney and Santonio Holmes helped run a camp in Ghana in 2010 according to GhanaWeb. But Ansah has more attachment to the country.
His family still lives in Ghana and a decade or so ago, he was one of those kids who knew nothing about football. Now? It’s how he makes a living.