Young Ghanaian artist presents beautiful painting to Erling Haaland
Art is life on its own. Art is is a beauty that captures its suitors and keeps them locked under it for time unending. It is its beauty and worth that makes people all over the world spend millions of hard currencies acquiring paintings and other beautiful artwork.
When you visit museums, apart from artefacts which may be related to the purpose of the museum, several of the world’s famous museums and galleries such as the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, The Louvre in Pari, the Museum of Modern Artwork in New York, the Museum of Black Civilization in Senegal, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, Ghana’s National Museum in Accra and the famous SWOPA in Sirigu that once attracted a sitting United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, all tell of a story. One that is told with passion, one that expresses the inner feelings of a soul to the outer world. All the above-mentioned museums and galleries have different inspirations but they all offer one thing, amusement in amazement.
Global entertainment stars, footballers and top politicians have large followings and not all their followers would ever met them before the passing of time. Some, however, go a step further to create and send a message to let their idols know that regardless of the distance, space and barriers that prevent a face-to-face meeting, they still can connect: through artwork.
We see several artists doing marvellous works of art for many top personalities and in the football world, people like Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Ghana’s Michael Essien and Asamoah have had artwork done for them by their fans and it is not new.
What is a bit new is what happened on Saturday, June 11, 2022, at the Accra Sports Stadium when Borussia Dortmund Legends as part of the #DortmundInGhana 2022 took on a select side made of former Ghanaian football stars and others from outside Ghana’s borders that formed the African Giants to play an exhibition match.
In a game that had so many stars such as legendary Ghana captain Abedi Ayew Pele on the touchlines and assisted by Tony Bafoe with Augustine Arhinful, Sammy Kuffour and former Hearts of Oak star men Charles Taylor and Sammy Adjei as well Stephen Appiah and Togolese icon Emmanuel Sheyi Adebayor running up and down the field on the African Giants side and other great names such as Jan Koller, Mohamed Zidan and David Odonkor on the Dortmund side, one young Ghanaian artiste opted for someone else to honour.
A former Borussia Dortmund talisman now with Premier League heavyweights Manchester City, Erling Haaland was the man who was chosen by the young Ghanaian and he made sure to present his work to the young Nowergian’s former team with the hope that it will get to the hands of the prolific goalscorer.
Jeffrey Nortey who developed a love for artwork while in Senior High School said he is inspired by nature (human faces). When he looks at a human face it gives him the inspiration to put it down into paintings and that is what has been driving him since 2018 when he began learning how to paint. “The beautiful and texture of human faces. I just love art,” he said of his motivation.
According to him, he loves Erling Haaland and he also noticed that Erling was the best at Dortmund he wanted to do something to appreciate his efforts on the pitch for Borussia Dortmund and to also express his [Jeffery’s] admiration for his[Haaland’] talent. Fueled by those two desires; to appreciate the talent of the Norwegian and express his admiration for him, he decided to do what he knows how to do best with passion, put down some artwork and present it to the young star.
When he was asked whether he has any plans of meeting up with the now Manchester City striker one day, he replied that he dreams of it and he prays the artwork gets to him and possibly through that he may get to meet Haaland, his icon one day.
Jeffrey presented his officials of Borussia Dortmund during the post-match conference at the Accra Sports Stadium on Saturday, June 11, 2022, and it is hoped that the work he did with passion will get to the young star who left the Signal Iduna Park this month to join Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City after three seasons with the Bundesliga giants that resulted in 86 goals from 89 appearances.
