When King Faisal beat fellow Kumasi outfit Asante Kotoko not many weeks into the 2021/22 Ghana Premier League season — ending the latter's unbeaten run in the process — Alhaji Karim Grusah, the club's founder and owner, was over the moon.

Those high spirits weren't inspired just by the fact that this was Faisal's first victory over their more illustrious city rivals in seven years. Most importantly, it was what the result meant: Faisal, a team more accustomed to the lower reaches of the table in recent years, going joint-top of the league (with Kotoko).

Grusah, not one to ever hide what he truly feels or thinks, even felt emboldened to make quite the boast.

"We will win the Premier League,” giddy Grusah bragged after the win. 

“We are winning the title this season.”

His coach, Nurudeen Amadu, was more measured in his estimation of the team's unusually strong form relative to what lay ahead.

“It means that we are on course but it is just too early to say anything,” he opined, adding that “if we continue working hard, at least we will get a respectable position on the league table.”

Amadu, apparently, had not hurriedly forgotten how Faisal had only narrowly survived relegation the previous campaign, and emphasised how ill-equipped the squad was to reach such a lofty target.

Grusah, not surprisingly, took a dim view of Amadu's perspective and was scathing in his response, slamming him over a perceived lack of ambition.

Before long, though, Amadu had been vindicated, even if at the cost of his position.

Four months after those dizzying heights of prevailing in the derby, he resigned honourably, with Faisal having plunged to 13th following six league defeats on the bounce. Even after his exit, the club continued to struggle, eventually scrambling to safety in the end.

In his time at Faisal, however, Amadu had done nothing to dent his reputation. It was he who, after all, helped them stay up towards the end of a 2020/21 campaign that had hitherto seen them labour for stability and consistency. Amadu lost none of his first nine games as Faisal boss, and just two of his first 18 in all competitions. For a club like Faisal, that is probably as good as it would ever get in the modern era.

Amadu's achievements, then, was almost exclusively the basis for Grusah's ultimately misplaced confidence. His refreshing modesty, though, is possibly the most impressive thing he brings to any job. That trait has contributed to his profile staying low, despite being one of the more experienced coaches on the domestic scene — so low, in fact, that he arrived at his current club, Samartex, almost as an unknown quantity.

“Not many people at Samartex, including the fans, knew who I was,” Amadu revealed in an interview with Kumasi-based Akoma FM.

Samartex, after spending some two decades wandering the lower divisions, only reached the top-flight ahead of the 2022/23 league season. Their debut campaign actually went much better than most newly-promoted teams tend to find the experience, finishing four points clear of the drop. 

Yet the club's hierarchy felt, with the strong structures in place and the quality of the squad, that they were capable of better. And so Amadu, who had not worked at Premier League level since ending his stint with Faisal, was brought in. Modest as he is, Amadu insists the initial objective was only to “finish higher than last season”.

They did just that — and then some.

By Matchday 25, Samartex had equalled their sum of points (46) from the previous term, an aggregate that, this time, had them top of the table. They had close company, especially from Nations FC and Aduana FC, but the margin started to steadily widen.

With two games to spare, Samartex have now wrapped up the title, their 58 points being nine more than their nearest challengers' tally. The Timber Giants — who started off in the mid-nineties as a recreational club associated with a company operating in the timber industry, before turning professional — have reached the pinnacle, after so long in the trenches.

Their feat isn't quite as stunning as Aduana winning the Premier League in their very first season at the end of the noughties, true, but this is as close as any team has ever got — and may ever get — to breaking, or even matching, that incredible 14-year record.

Amadu, though, chooses to remain coy about his first major honour as a coach — which he describes as “a dream come true” — crediting it instead to the men by whose consideration he landed the position in the first place.

“A big thanks to Prof. Mintah who recommended me to Samartex,” he said, “and many thanks also to [general manager] Edmund Ackah, who believed in me a lot.”

Amadu's sights, next, will be turned towards competing and making a mark in the CAF Champions League, which Samartex have qualified for by virtue of their maiden domestic triumph.

“I think that we will beef up the team because going to Africa is not easy,” he admitted.

The 53-year-old would, no doubt, approach that assignment with characteristic humility. It has served Amadu pretty well so far, and could yet take him further still in his career.