Football is a very popular sport in the world and sports journalists across the world have keen interest regarding the round leather ball. In Ghana, football is one channel that entertains the populace, both young and old.
Famous names within the local football setting include the capital's Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko who certainly amass a majority of supporters on the local scene because of their trophy haul and their conquest on the shores of Africa.
However, a quick downward turn of events saw the popularity of the Ghana Premier League fall to miserable low. One factor for this downward trend was the influx of foreign league on our Ghanaian TV screens.
However, one young budding journalist, a TV Sports Presenter with Atinka Media Village and a student of Ghana's maiden journalism institute, Ghana Institute of Journalism took it in his strides to go on a sole journey of once again reviving the popularity of the once-ailing GPL.
Due to his accuracy and professional style of reporting on the GPL, it earned him the nickname: Ghana's 'Fabrizio Romano'.
The accolade 'GPL Statistician' was added to his ranks because of his ability to break news and tell interesting stories about the league and also combine statistics of the league.
On November 2, 2021, he launched a book titled 'Ghana Premier League Book' where dignitaries like the President of Ghana Football Association, Kurt E.S Okraku graced the occasion with his presence. Colleagues in the sports fraternity also showed up to throw their weight behind the book launch. At the launch, the President of the Ghana Football Association was full of praise for Shaban Mohammed and applauded his immense contribution towards the development of Ghana Football and encouraged him and other young journalists to do more for the growth of the local game.
Aside the book launch, the Ghanaian Sports Journalist has promoted the league through consistent updates on the league’s statistics which includes top scorers, assist chart, goalkeeper’s data, referees’ data, and also player ratings.
Most of the data of players are made bare by Shaban Mohammed. It is of little wonder that he became the first journalist to come up with data statistics of the league.
In this day and age, one cannot downplay the importance of data cum statistics in the growth of the game.
Statistics is the most important thing in football and has improved football worldwide because it gives the media news to write and talk about. Statistics also reveals more details about a football match and player ratings.
For instance, his gathering of data on Hearts of Oak's, Kofi Kordzi led to an eye opener on the former Phobian goal poacher. The statistics clearly showed Hearts have never lost in any game the striker has scored in.
Statistics put together by the data journalist also revealed Hearts of Oak scored at least two goals at home in the GPL last season, interesting right?
Aside gathering data on players and clubs, he also provides accurate data on officiating officials in the GPL. It will strike you to know that data collected last season indicates that two referees officiated most games in the Ghana Premier League.
As a strong promoter of Ghanaian football, Shaban Mohammed is using data and accurate statistics to propagate Ghana's elite male soccer competition in a way that has never been witnessed in Ghana.
In 2022, Shaban Mohammed officially joined the Ghana Football Association as the first Statistician of the Association and in the last two years he has provided statistics that has improved the Ghana Premier League, Division One League, Women’s Premier League, MTN FA Cup, Woman’s FA Cup and National Teams information.
To him, seeing Ghana's football gain world popularity would be his greatest achievement as a sports journalist.