Jafaru Rahama, popularly known as Jafar Rahama, is a Ghanaian female footballer who was born in Kunbungu in the Northern part of Ghana, on 17TH March 2002, and plays as an extreme or second striker. She is the daughter of Nafisah Mohammed, her mother and Issah Jafaru who is her father, from whom she inherited her name and passion for football since he is also a football fanatic. From a very young age, Jafaru showed her love for football by playing 5 aside, street football in Ghana and it was in these sports that she began to show all her football talent.

Jafaru Rahama began to love football and decided to take it seriously, playing indoor soccer and sometimes school activity football motivated by the story of Cristiano Ronaldo and then go through small clubs in her hometown. In 2015, when she was very young and loved by many in her community, she was signed by Northern Ladies Football Club in Ghana from Sports Acadamy, one of the most famous and important teams in Ghana where famous female players had played.

In 2015, a lot of clubs were interested in her talent and scouts travel to perform the relevant signing procedures to play for their clubs which some went through satisfactorily. However, these transfers could not occur as Northern Ladies Football Club and her agency/agent felt they needed to groom her better and allow her to grow into the sports she loved. The player had a rapid advance in the lower categories, demonstrating in each of them her skill and speed in dribbling with the ball which allowed her to be promoted to the first team in 2016 where she made her second Ghana Women Premier League debut for Northern Ladies Football Club.

In the 2016/2017 season, Jafaru Rahama debuted as a professional at Northern Ladies Football Club at a very young age, in a game against Ampem Darko in which she played the last 30 minutes of the game. Her first goal in the team would be few weeks after her debut against Tamale Super Ladies FC of that same year, she would score decisive goals which her team will win. The final games of that season, unfortunately, they lost some few games and her injuries that season widened and at the end of her first season, she made 10 appearances, managed to score 6 goals and 4 assists. In addition, she was named the Overall Best Player that season and Airtel Rising Star of the year.

In the 2017/2018 season of the Ghana Women Premier League which was cancelled by the Ghana Football Association due to some reasons, she displayed amazing football techniques, in which she made 7 appearances, scored 4 goals and gave 3 assists and was chosen as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 3 games of the season. All these accolades made Jafaru Rahama start to be compared to a female player like Alex Morgan who was one of her idols and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal. Jafaru Rahama was called for the first time in the Ghanaian U-17 National Team where she gave assists and precision passes.

In the Ghana Women’s Premier League 2018/2019 season, Northern Ladies Football Club managed to be in third place in the league table where Jafaru Rahama scored 9 goals, 7 assists in 10 appearances. In the 2019/2020 season, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic of which before the cancelation of the whole season, she managed to score 5 goals, gave 5 assists in 6 appearances before the nationwide lock down and the season tournament cancelled.  Northern Ladies Football Club in 2020/2021 participated in the MTN FA CUP of which with the display of Jafar in the matches, were pegged to take the cup, which in turn was the first cup competition that Jafar played aside the Women’s Premier League, and, in that cup, the player scored 9 goals, gave 8 assists in just 3 appearances. Northern Ladies Football Club was defeated in the 1/8 level of the competition. Jafaru Rahama managed to win the MTN FA CUP Top Scorer though her team was eliminated and her popularity in her region kept on increasing.

Jafar achieved her first 60 goals and 40 assists in the 2020/2021 season, in a game against Ash-Town Ladies, a very important milestone for the player. That same season her 10 goals and 7 assists added up to that milestone with 14 appearances for Northern Ladies Football Club.

In 2021, Jafaru Rahama expressed the desire to play in the southern zone of the Ghana Women’s Premier League like Berry Ladies Football or Hasaacas Ladies Football Club, so in that year she did renew her contract with Northern Ladies Football Club before signing for Hasaacas Ladies FC on Loan for 2 seasons for an undisclosed amount.

Her debut in Hasaacas Ladies Football Club was in the game of the First Lady Cup against Ampem Darko. She entered the 63rd minute and her team won as scored a goal helping them become champions that day, her first cup, her first win in the Hasaacas Ladies shirt and you could see her joy and happiness with her new side.

In the same 2020/2021 season, Hasaacas Ladies FC played the Ghana Women Premier league with tough teams in the southern zone, in which Jafaru Rahama made 5 appearances scoring 6 goals and made 5 assists helping Hasaacas Ladies Football Club win the League and became champions that season.

In 2021/2022, Jafar participated with Hasaacas Ladies Football Club WAFU ZONE B CUP in Ivory Coast, where she made 5 appearances and gave 2 assists helping her side win the cup and become champions that same season and year. Jafar played 90 minutes in all matches of the Cup and although she did not score, became one of the historical players after winning the cup at club level, the First Lady Cup, the Ghana Women Premeir League and Wafu Zone B Cup the same year.

Jafaru Rahama with Hasaccas Ladies FC also played the CAF WOMEN’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE in Egypt, in which Jafaru Rahama made 6 appearances and gave 3 assists. Her contribution gave Hasaacas Ladies Fc a silver medal.

In 2021/2022, Jafaru Rahama was on the squad of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup African Qualifiers, a competition that in which she was very elusive to the Ghanaian team and with which Jafar wanted to help her side qualify to the women’s world cup at the national team level. The path of the player and her team to achieve a qualification came to pass making 5 appearances, gave 4 assists and scored 3 goals in the qualification stage.

Jafaru Rahama managed to consolidate herself in the Ghanaian U-20 national team, so she was taken into account in the squad list that was published on, 2022, to face the World Cup that would be played in Costa Rica. In her first U-20 World Cup, Jafar disputed in the games making good movements with good reading of each game she was part, but Jafar ended up injured by a fracture that made her make only three appearances.

In the 2022/2023 season, Jafaru Rahama joined Berry Ladies Football Club in the January 2023 transfer, now played for two of her favorite clubs in the southern zone, Hasaacas Ladies Football Club and Berry Ladies Football Club. Her debut in Berry Ladies Football Club was in the game against Thunder Queens Football Club where she gave an important assist leading to a goal that decided the match. Jafaru so far has played 4 matches for Berry Ladies FC with 3 assists and 2 goals and an MVP already.

JAFARU answers YOUR questions in an Exclusive Interview with Gloria Kafui Kuzo, a female sports journalist.

This exclusive interview with Jafaru Rahama done by Gloria Kafui Kuzo appears in Blvck Tick Media Inc, Samuel Kwame Boadu Journal and “This is Berries“, a bi-weekly, monthly issues, media support of Berry Ladies Football Club. Subscribe now! (Opens in new tab)

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Though it seems difficult to believe given what would follow, it will surprise you to know that what you think you know about Jafaru Rahama might be a hear say. Today I had an interview with Jafaru Rahama in what seems like an interview to ask what some of her fans want to know.

This leader of new school type of female football has landed in Accra, Berry Ladies Football Club in the January 2023 transfer as a fresh face from Northern Ladies Football Club, accompanied by the ominous knowledge that so many of her young compatriots before her had tried and failed, to help lift the first league cup for Berry Ladies Football Club if not this season, the next season.

Jafaru Rahama, it turned out, was no ordinary young Ghanaian Female Footballer. Berry Ladies FC fans would soon discover that, as she helps to deliver them the League cup soon. World Cup success may have evaded Jafar Rahama, but it hardly diminished her standing among the greats in both northern and southern zone. It’s no wonder that there’s a near-permanent smile on her face as she tackles “This is Berries” readers’ questions about it all…

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “Which player did you look up to when you were rising?”

Jafaru Rahama: “My big references are Cristiano Ronaldo and Alex Morgan. When I took my first steps in football, they were the main players of that tremendous generation. They both played in the same positions as me – I couldn’t have had bigger references than them in my early days.

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “You are a very quiet footballer – was that something you always had when you started football?”

Jafaru Rahama: “Well, I never set out to be talkative. I’d say it was something that developed naturally over the years though i am seen as a funny person among my peers. Only in the middle of the park was I considered a quite footballer. I don’t recall hearing a compliment like that in my time– I am definitely quiet player, but some few players will tell you i am sometimes outspoken.

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “You have played with so many teams in both the southern and northern zone, which team had the toughest defenders?”

Jafaru Rahama: “Well to be frank its hasaacas Ladies Football club not because i was with them but I think most strikers in the Ghana Women’s Premier League can testify to this. Their communication at the back when they need a point is very serious. They are the toughest.

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “Do you think the experience of being in Women’s World Cup, alongside great talents, helped to push you to become one of your generation’s new schools best female players?”

Jafaru Rahama: “Yes sure. You get to train with different coach, technical team and the demand at the top is very high so you can’t afford to lose focus. You get to play with different teams, atmosphere and the exposure makes you and builds you up. Playing with different talents, from different team is something every player dreams of to learn from each other and bring that experience back to the club level. So Yes!

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “What was Hasaacas Ladies Fc coaching like compared to northern ladies? Any famous stories from your time together?

Jafaru Rahama: “Let me say there was much more experience than northern ladies FC because at that time we were playing different tournaments and the experience at the time was very massive. Northern Ladies FC are equally good, but Hasaacas Ladies FC are very demanding, and competition is high because of different tournaments and technical demands.

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “What do you like about Berry Ladies Football club since you joined the club?”

Jafaru Rahama: “Let me make it clear here and i am a very honest person, Berry Ladies FC is on a different level when it comes to management, hospitality and media. I have not seen such like this before. I like everything about berry the CEO, coach, players, fans, media team and the management are all friendly and i think anyone who wants that European level of management and hype must pass through Berry Ladies FC.

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “Did you lose friends when you chose to be a female footballer?”

Jafaru Rahama: “No because I didn’t have much of friends back then so the ones, I made are all football lovers or footballers and I must say they have helped and supported me till this day”

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?”

Jafaru Rahama: “I want to have a good name in my football career play one of the biggest female teams in the world before i retire”

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “How difficult was it to adjust from playing in the northern zone to life in the southern zone?”

Jafaru Rahama: “It wasn’t easy at all, but I had to try life in different places. I can’t just be playing one side, just like my idol Cristian Ronaldo, had to move to be champion in different zones.”

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “After football, what do you plan to do?”

Jafaru Rahama: “I want to own my properties through my career sweat and a big company that will be there for generations to help my community”

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “Should you be a coach, which team would you love to coach? Do you have plans of being a coach one day?

Jafaru Rahama: “Actually coaching is not in my plans but let’s see how things go, maybe i might have interest in it or maybe i might own a coaching school”

Gloria Kafui Kuzo: “Let me leave you to go rest since you just came back from training: Thank you for your time and wish you all the best in your journey”

Jafaru Rahama: “Thank you too for your time and i appreciate this”

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Curated by Samuel Kwame Boadu, Head of Digital Marketer at Berry Ladies Football Club

Source:  www.berryladiesfcgh.com

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