Hello Scorum.

I am 3 posts and about 2 weeks in on Scorum. And I only just realized I never did an introductory post. Not that it’s a requirement but I feel it’s wonderful I give one. Sorry for the delay.

My name is Ali Lansah Ismail. Fun fact, my initials spell out my first name A. L. I. and my dad deserves credit for that. I am heading into my final year of medical school in September in the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale, Ghana. Before UDS, I attended one of the most prestigious Senior High Schools in the country, St. James Seminary and Senior High School. We argue we are the best and we might just be right. But I always wondered who something like that could be objectively assessed.

This is me relaxing after observing surgery

My passions other that school (because quite honestly medical school is like full-time job, without any salary sadly) are football, sitcoms, video games, reading and movies in general. I also follow sports in general; basketball, tennis, NFL, some formula 1. My weekdays are packed! From 8 am to 5 pm I am using in the hospital. When I get home, it’s a bit of studying at night or football when Champions league and Europa league are on. Sometimes I just relax a little with some sitcoms. My weekends are a whole lot better. That’s if I’m not required to join my team on cover at the hospital. In the case I don't go to the hospital, I study just for a while and immediately the matches for the weekend kick-off I switch over. I spend most of my weekends watching football; the English Premier League especially, which I think is the best worldwide; the Spanish la Liga and a bit of Serie A or Bundesliga when a match that tickles my fancy in these leagues are on.

I support Arsenal F. C. I have for as long as I could remember. I grew up idolizing Henry, Pires, Viera, just to mention a few. My first replica arsenal jersey proudly displayed “PIRES” with the number 7 on the back. At a young age, I played football for my schools growing up. Football runs in my blood, my dad playing professionally for Tamale based team, Real Tamale United while schooling at Ghana Secondary School and even while at the University of Cape Coast (UCC). I had no such professional exposure. Completely drifting into academics when I got into Secondary School. I probably wasn’t as good a footballer as he was or I just wasn’t meant to play football. I still however play football from time to time with my friends and classmates especially on Saturday mornings, and I have still got my skills! The class of 2019 team (my class) enjoyed an unprecedented invincible spell from our fresher-man year in 2012. We won 5 succesive Football trophies in our annual Medical Students Association games. We sadly lost in the finals of last November's games in what was our very last involvement in the competition before our graduation. 

A team photo we used for a peace campaign before our National Election in 2016

I enjoy writing articles and joined Steemit but unfortunately football didn’t seem to have such a huge following there so my motivation to write continued to dwindle until I visited my account sometime back and saw a comment in one of my posts telling me about a platform that would break ground soon and would be sports mainly. I quickly joined the scorum writers group on telegram and patiently awaited the launch of this webpage. Thank you, developers of Scorum.

My Scorum profile will 90% of the time be about football. Arsenal, the premier league, Barcelona and Messi should feature more in my posts. That’s what I expect at least, because these are what a follow the most. Arsenal, because that is my first love; the premier league because I spend most of my weekends watching it; Messi because he is my favourite player and I love watching him play and lastly, Barcelona because Messi plays there and I always follow them as well.

I will also write about anything football I find interesting including any technological advancements I might have come across. I also expect to write about other sports but not as frequently as football related stuff.

I also have this initiative I started on Steemit which I will continue here, “Champions League Nights” where I chose a match to discuss on each champions league night. I am going to look at selecting a few premier league matches weekly as well.

And lastly, I plan on getting friends who are avid fans of football giants to tell their story of how they came to support their football clubs and what keeps them supporting the club.

My dream in life is to work in football at some point. It is my passion! I don’t know whether it will be as a coach (fingers crossed), a board member, a member of the technical or coaching staff, as a team doctor or even the owner of a team (eyes on Real Tamale United). I also wanted to be a plastic surgeon but I am quite fascinated by sports medicine and might just switch lanes. But what I do know is, whether sports medicine or plastic surgeon, my future eventually lies in football.

So, join me on this journey which looks daunting; combining my final lap of med school with my other passions. I am looking forward to the challenge and I know I can make it work.

Some of my closest colleagues. From the left; R. Madrid fan, Liverpool fan, another Madridsta and a Manchester United fan
Another picture from our healthweek launch. Guy on my back is a Chelsea fan