S.C. Adelaide
| Full name | Sportiva Calcio Adelaide | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Azzuri The Blues | |||
| Founded | May 16, 1995 | |||
| Ground | Christ Church, Ningo Pampram | |||
| Capacity | 8000 | |||
| Head Coach |  Elikem Ayikple | |||
| League | Second Division | |||
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Sportiva Calcio Adelaide commonly referred to as simply Adelaide or the abbreviation S.C. Adelaide, is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Tema, Ghana. The club has spent most of their history as a youth football team, but recently converted into a senior team in second tier of the Ghana league. Adelaide was initially started as a football club, as a club oriented to multiple sports. Adelaide has departments for athletics, basketball, football, handball, swimming, volleyball, and others. Their motto is Deo Juvante (Latin) meaning with God’s Help.
History
The club was founded as a sporting club in 1995 as an organization to aid the youth in the community to get into sports. It was named after St Adelaide of Italy (thus the Italian connection Sportiva Calcio Adelaide). Adelaide means Noble kind; of the noble sort, and this was what the organization set out to do to the community. “The opening of the club is with an aim developing talents and to raise up a generation who will be brave enough to face the world practically and make the nation and the continent as a whole proud.” In honor of its origins, the club has retained the Italian name as Sportiva Calcio Adelaide, instead of changing it to the Adelaide Sporting Club, it should be noted that the S.C. is in front of the Adelaide and not after, which is sometimes confused since more sporting activities are being taken.
Colours and badge
Throughout the entire history of the club, they have been represented by the colour blue and white. The colours have two representations, firstly Psychics who claim to be able to observe the aura with their third eye report that someone with a blue aura is a person who is oriented toward spirituality, due to St Adelaide. People with blue auras are said to be interested in social service work and to be in occupations such as social worker, counselor, teacher, writer, and psychologist due to the aim of the organization. Secondly with its Italian connection, Azzurro (meaning sky), a light blue, is the national colour of Italy Due to Adelaide's blue jersey, they have gained the nickname Azzuri. White was chosen because White was the symbol of Catholics, white means purity.
Stadium
The team's current stadium is the 1000 seat Christ Church, in the district of Ningo Prampram where it's located. There is ambiguity with the origin of the name, it was named after the many catholic cathedrals, it is also believed the name was given as a place for rejoicing for the fans where they will go and enjoy themselves from the football.
Approach and philosophy
S.C. Adelaide has been described as a team which has a desire to entertain and attack and dedicated to individual and collective technical quality. They played a total of 32 passes and possession for about 5 minutes. They have a strong reputation for unearthing young talent and turning them into becoming excellent players, some of which are Ransford Osei a Striker described by FIFA.com as "an opportunistic goal machine"[1] with superb pace and movement[2], young free-scoring sensation Osei was recognized by World Soccer Magazine as one of the 50 Most Exciting Teenagers on the Planet in their November 2007 Issue. Daniel Opare also was recognized by World Soccer Magazine as one of the 50 Most Exciting Teenagers on the Planet in their November 2007 Issue, young marauding Right Wingback Opare received rave reviews for using his incredible pace and precision crossing to great effect for Ghana’s U-17 Team, The Black Starlets[3] at the 2007 U-17 World Cup[4].
The Adelaide defense set a new record after going 22 consecutive games without conceding a goal and went unbeaten the whole season. A commentator said “they (Adelaide) are protecting their goal like they will all die if the ball hit the post let alone if they conceded a goal”. Adelaide is one of the most successful youth clubs in Ghana, having produced the most number of European based players. A record of 6 players; highest ever representation of a single club for the Under-17 team played in 1999. A total of 17 players have been produced for the under-17 since the clubs inception. Most of the players were recruited by premier league clubs into their youth teams and first teams. With their development and gradual progression into the premier league it will not be long before the players are sold directly to foreign clubs.
Notable former players
- Daniel Opare - Real Madrid
- Sadick Adams - Atlético Madrid
- Ransford Osei - Maccabi Haifa F.C.
- Anthony Annan - IK Start
- Prince Tagoe - Al-Ittifaq
- Anthony Obodai - Ajax
- Eric Bekoe - Kotoko
- David Nii Addy - Randers FC
- Mubarak Wakaso - Elche CF
References
- ^ FIFA (2007-09-17). "Osei keen to have the last word". FIFA. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "African Under-17 Hottest Starlets". Goal.com. 2007-09-17. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Goal.com (2007-09-17). "African Under-17 Hottest Starlets". Goal.com. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Template:Es icon"Informe: Mundial sub17 2007". Perlas del futbol. 2007-09-17. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)