He’s not being figurative here. He really did dance with the trophy, almost as tall as the five-foot-five he’s generously listed at in league literature. Video of it flooded Twitter after 2017’s September Final. Blessing’s pride was unmistakable and his joy unconfined. And he was no passenger in the game, a tight 2-1 contest. KC’s little big man scored the opening goal with this head, in among a forest of tall and brawny Red Bull defenders. It might have been the sheer perfection of Graham Zusi’s cross, but the shortest player on the field, in the running for shortest MLS-wide, rose highest to nod home that day. “Everyone loves it when a little short guy like me gets a goal like that. But back in Ghana, it was my secret weapon. No defender really expected me to go for those high balls, so I just started going for them,” he explained to ussoccer.com, laughing at the memory of his unlikely aerial exploits. “I surprised them all the time with it.”
Rural Roots in Ghana
He grew up playing for fun, and welcome diversion, in the rural southeast of Ghana. His home village of Nankese is a small place with little to do, but passion for soccer runs deep there. “It was tough; the pitches were really rough and beat up and you had to deal with that,” he remembers of the days before he moved to the capital city, Accra, and Liberty Professional Club where he graduated from the youths to the first team at the tender age of 16. It wasn’t long before he was voted best player in Ghana’s Premier League in 2016. “Now here in MLS, the pitches are beautiful and I have no excuses! I have to play good!”
