Founder of the Right to Dream Academy, Tom Vernon, has credited his lawyer, Vincent Kizito Beyuo, for standing behind them during difficult times and saving the project from people who claimed ownership of their land.

He disclosed that he would have abandoned the project if the land claim at their Old Akrade campus in Akosombo had been successful.

Speaking to Joy Sports Editor, Fentuo Tahiru Fentuo, in an all-access interview at the academy’s campus, the Englishman said these attempts to bring the Right to Dream project down taught him how to approach subsequent ones.

"When we finished building this, somebody came with a land claim that it's for them. I remember going home and telling my wife that if they take this thing off me, then we are going because we had just finished building it," he said.

"Then in Denmark, too, like the risk that we took to borrow that money and expose ourselves in that way.

"There were a lot of people trying to bring the project down.

"I'm so grateful that people did those things because the land case teaches you so many things about how to do the next one. All these things, your toughest times are your best learnings.

"I have to thank our lawyer, Kizito Beyuo. If you see the bills he sent us, it can’t compare to the work he has done for us. He is just one Ghanaian who put everything behind us and protected us all the way through. I was lucky to meet him.

"One time they were trying to kick us out and then I took him to a meeting and when the guys saw him they said ‘then we can’t do what we are trying to do’. They were like a small tree next to a big rock. They couldn’t chop us down because of him."

Twenty-five years on, the academy has produced some of the finest players in Ghana, including Majeed Waris, David Accam, Mohammed Kudus and Kamaldeen Sulemana.