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The death has been reported in Accra Tuesday morning of former Ghana international defender and later coach, Sir Cecil Jones Attuquaye after battling with sickness over the years.

He died at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

The former CAF Champions League winning coach has been battling with Throat Cancer for a while and that has kept him out of the limelight over the last couple of years or so, but without a doubt, he was one of Ghana’s living legends.

Born on 15th October, 1944, Attuquayefio was a gifted defender who helped Accra Great Olympics to win the Ghana league in 1970 and was also part of the Black Stars team that won the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in 1965 and also played in the 1968 and 1970 grand finales.

As a coach he is renowned for winning three league titles with Accra Hearts of Oak and also guided them to win the CAF Champions League in 2000 as well as the CAF Super Cup in that year before adding the maiden CAF Confederation Cup in 2004.

He coached the Black Stars in 2001 and became the first coach to qualify Benin to the AFCON in 2004.

PLAYING CAREER:

1962 – 65 – A member of Ghana’s students international football team and at the same time a member of the Ghana Academicals team.
1962 –63 – Played for Accra Standfast F/C, a 1st first division team
1963 –66 – Ghana Republicans F/C (Osagyefo’s own club), which was disbanded after Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown in February 1966.With Republicans, he won two F.A cups in 163/64 and 1964/65.
1966-67 Corners Stones ( Had a short stint with them)
1967 –74 – Accra Gt. Great Olympics F/C- He captained Olympics to win their first ever league title in 1970 and led Olympics to their semi final clash with Kotoko in the African Champions’ Cup now the CAF Champions league in 1971. The 1st leg ended 1-1 at the Accra Sports Stadium. Attuquayefio scored first for Olympics before it was equalized by Abukari for Kotoko. The 2nd leg went 1-0 in favour of Kotoko at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, Kumasi. This tie was the 1st time a CAF organised competition witnessed a clash between two clubs from the same country and it was in the 2nd leg hat Attuquayefio, had a career threatening injury in the 32nd minute, which sidelined him for a year and even caused him to lose his position in the national team.

INTERNATIONAL CAREER:

1965 –72 – A member of the team that won the African Cup of Nations in 1965 and was also among the squad that participated in the finals of the African Cup in 1968 and 1970. Before 2008 AFCON he was one of the three players to have appeared in three African nations cup finals. He played the 1965, 1968 and 1970 final games, but won that of the 1965 in Tunisia.

ADMINISTRATION:

1982-83 – Rose through the ranks of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to the position of Vice Chairman of the Association under the Chairmanship of Zac Bentum
1995 –97 – Deputy General Secretary, GFA

COACHING CAREER:

1974 –84 – Started with Accra Great Olympics where he was the head coach, after he had been sent to Brazil for training course.
1985 –87 – Assistant coach of the senior national team, the Black Stars
1988 –90 – Coached Okwawu United before moving to Cote d’ Ivoire to handle Stade Abidjan.

1990 –95 –Goldfields sent him to Germany for a coaching course, before he returned to manage Goldfields Football club and Academy. He helped them to win the 1st ever professional league in Ghana, 1993/94.
1996 – He qualified the Olympics team for Atlanta 1996, before he assisted coach Sam Arday in the Atlanta 1996 Olympics.

1998 –99 – Coached the National Under-17 team, the Black Starlets to win the African Under-17 Cup in Guinea before winning bronze at the World Under-17 tournament in New Zealand in 1999.

1998 –2001 – He was appointed by Hearts of Oak and guided them to win four League titles and two Knockout trophies.

2000 — Won the CAF Champions League to give Hearts its first and only continental title in their 93 years existence. In the same year he was engaged by the Black Stars ahead of the 2002 world cup qualifiers, but was later fired, after some mixed results.

2001 — He became the first Ghanaian coach to win the CAF Super Cup after the team succeeded in beating Zamalek at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, Kumasi. As a result of these achievements, Hearts appeared 8th in the CNN top 10 clubs in the world in the 2001.

2002 — Left Hearts of Oak and joined Dansoman-based Liberty Professionals briefly.

2003-04 — He was named coach of the Benin National team and qualified them to their first Africa Nation’s Cup finals in Tunisia(2004). After the tournament, he left Benin for Ghana claiming that the Benin FA had failed to fulfill its financial obligations to him as stated in his contract with them.

2005- He guided Hearts of Oak to win the maiden edition of the CAF Confederations cup( 2004) against Kotoko in 2005

2005-2011- Technical Director of Liberty Professionals

INDIVIDUAL HONOURS :

1973 – MOV. Member of the Order of Volta (Civil Division Ghana). The award was given to him with other sportsmen like Ibrahim Sunday, Mike Ashey, Rose Hart, A.O Lawson by the NRC government led by I.K Acheampong, on 6th March, 1973. The Sunday Mirror singled him out and stated Jones Attuquayefio honoured as “Sir” and that is how come the title “Sir” is always added to his name.

2001 – He was named the African Coach of the year in 2000 for leading Hearts to win their first Continental trophy and also won the SWAG Coach of the year award.

He was again awarded the Nana Kumi Gyamfi’s Best Coach Award for the 2000/01 in the Star/F.A awards.

Friday 30th June, 2012 – A football match was organized to honour Sir Cecil Jones Attuquayefio. A match dubbed Sir Cecil Jones Attuquayefio Charity match to raise money for the treatment of throat cancer at the Korlebu Teaching Hospital, having suffered the same disease.

The match at the Ohene Gyan Sports Stadium was between friends of Attuquayefio (Players who played under him, especially the 64 battalions) and the Black Stars.