Non-League and Academy football writer

Jeffrey Twumasi is the founder and organiser of the Pride of Africa Cup, which is a one day tournament which, in its second year, takes place once again at Parsloes Park Hub, in Dagenham, this Saturday. Thank you to Jeffrey, who recently took the time to speak to me ahead of the tournament, which I will be attending and covering on my blog, this Saturday.

Could you talk me through a bit about your background in football?

Jeffrey: My brother would join a grassroots team called Old Isleworthians, before then being scouted for Chelsea. So that really got me interested in football, and so I really followed his lead, and I eventually joined Old Isleworthians. I was with them until I was 15, before moving on to Hayes & Yeading, who I played for in their Sunday team. I later played for their college team, before moving on to Harrow Borough, who I spent a couple of years with, before moving to Coventry University. And we won the league in my final year there.

After finishing university and moving back to London, I started out with non-League side Hanworth Villa, who I was with for a couple of years. I later spent some time with Guildford City and then Molesey, before going to North Greenford and then Bedfont, before eventually moving to Clapton Community, who I’m still with now. Clapton has probably been my most stable club, and I’m just entering my fourth season with them.

Could you talk to me about the Pride of Africa Cup, and also about the very first edition of the tournament, in the summer of 2025?

Jeffrey: The Pride of Africa Cup is meant to be like a replica of the Africa Cup of Nations, but I wanted to do a UK version of the tournament. Because I know a lot of players in the UK want to represent their country through football. I initially wanted to do the tournament just before pre-season, to get everyone to warmup before the season starts.

Last year in 2025 the first ever edition of the tournament took place, involving four teams: Ghana, Nigeria, Algeria, and Eritrea. It was a very competitive tournament in terms of the football, and a lot of the players play at a good level, from step 3 to step 6. The winner at the end was Eritrea even though, on paper, Ghana had the best team. But, they lost to Eritrea in the final.

With the second edition of the tournament taking place on Saturday, could you talk me through this year’s participants, and some of your hopes for the tournament?

Jeffrey: This year the aim was always to make it a bigger tournament, and this year in addition to having music once again, we also have food as well, to make it a better experience. This year we’ve got six teams, with last year’s runners-up Ghana definitely being a team to watch out for again this year. The Eritrean team keep their cards close to their chest, and so I don’t know too much about them. But, last year, on the day, they played their football like Manchester City do, that’s how good they were. So I’d say they that they are considered as this year’s favourites for the tournament. Algeria and Nigeria were competitive last year, but ultimately fell short on the day.

Equatorial Guinea are new to the tournament, but speaking to their captain, I understand that they’ve been playing together for a long time. Sierra Leone are quite a new team, but they have a lot of individual brilliance in their team. I used to live in the same tower block as Carlton Cole, and so I know him. His younger brother is going to be representing Sierra Leone at the tournament, and he’s a very good player.

What are some of your hopes for the tournament for the future?

Jeffrey: I want to make the tournament bigger over time, as well as building more of a social following, and eventually gaining sponsors. But, in the future I also want to do qualifiers for the tournament, to make it even more competitive for teams who want to participate. And I just want it to be as competitive a tournament as possible, and I even want to go as far as making the tournament international. So for example, there could be a team Ghana UK, versus a team Ghana France, but that will probably be later on down the line.