Village in Ghana to celebrate Villa win with paradeFigure caption, Archive: BBC Sport Africa spoke to Owusu Boakye in in 2020 about Ghana’s village of 1,000 Villa fansByEmily SalleyBBC Sport journalistPublished30 minutes agoAt the same time an open-top bus rolls through Birmingham with Unai Emery’s Europa League-winning side on board, a minibus full of Aston Villa fans will be cruising through a village in Ghana to celebrate.
Villa ended a 30-year trophy drought on Wednesday with a 3-0 victory over Freiburg at Istanbul’s Besiktas Park.
Their success will be celebrated on their return from Turkey with an open-top bus victory procession through the streets of Birmingham on Thursday.
More than 5,000km away a makeshift parade of 30 motorcycles and a minibus will be travelling through the Ghanaian village of Juaben.
The village is home to about 1,000 Villa fans and the Ghana Lions, a supporters’ club headed up by Owusu Boakye.
“Yesterday was one of our best moments in life and what a time to support Aston Villa,” Boakye, a lifelong Villa fan, told the BBC.
“We have hired 30 motorcycles so we can go around the whole community. We will go there to see how everybody is chanting, how everybody is feeling.
“Today we are going to use our minibus like what Aston Villa will be doing today.”
