FICTIONAL football gained an unlikely champion in Andy Ansah.
The journeyman striker eventually mixed it with the game’s elite players as he built a new career in the world of football make-believe for TV and film.
His own exploits on the field were in less esteemed company, including stints playing in the lower leagues for Brighton, Brentford and Southend United.
Not too many Brighton fans will remember him, though, because his 25 appearances in the blue and white stripes coincided with the two seasons when home matches were played 90 miles from home in Gillingham.
With crowd numbers low and finances tight as a consequence, Albion were in no position to splash the cash in the autumn of 1997; indeed John Humphrey, Craig Maskell, Paul McDonald, Denny Mundee and Ian Baird, five of the squad who had kept the Seagulls in the league by the skin of their teeth only six months earlier, were let go in an effort to trim the wage bill.
It was in that climate that Ansah, who had dropped out of league football at the time, was picked up by Steve Gritt.
It only transpired in an interview Ansah gave to the Express in December 2011 that he came clean to the Albion about a kidney condition (nephrotic syndrome) he had suffered from since teenage years but had kept hidden at previous clubs.
It could at times make his body swell so much he could hardly walk and he would need hospital treatment to bring it under control.
He told the newspaper he had gone to extraordinary lengths to hide the illness from managers, coaches and fellow players for fear that it would mean the end of his career. When he felt poorly, he would wear tracksuit bottoms on the training ground to hide the swelling, and then feign illness.
At Brighton, however, the condition did not stop him being involved, although the majority of his appearances were as a substitute.
Apart from a start in a 5-0 mauling at the hands of Walsall in the Auto Windscreens Shield on 6 January 1998, he had made three Third Division appearances going on as a sub and was unused on seven occasions before his fortunes changed.
Although he missed a decent chance after going on as a sub in a 2-0 defeat at Rochdale, he made amends when Gritt gave him his first League start away to Exeter City, curving the ball beyond Ashley Bayes from Stuart Storer’s flick-on.
Sadly, a rogue refereeing decision helped the home side to a 2-1 win, and, with Albion floundering in second-to-bottom spot in the division, Gritt was sacked the following day.
Ansah retained his place for new manager Brian Horton’s first match – and he was on the scoresheet again. This time, his goal and a brace from Kerry Mayo gave the Seagulls a 3-2 win over Chester – the side’s first taste of victory in 10 matches!
“The emergency partnership of Stuart Storer and Andy Ansah has provided fresh movement and impetus up front, while wingers John Westcott and Steve Barnes saw far more of the ball on Saturday than they have been accustomed to,” reported The Argus.
Albion finished the season 23rd of 24 teams but thankfully 15 points ahead of Doncaster Rovers in last place.
Ansah scored again in the last ‘home’ game of the season – a 2-2 draw with Horton’s old side Hull City (who finished 22nd) – but, like a lot of players, he was out of contract at the end of the season.
Horton wanted to bring in his own players but, as it turned out, Ansah was offered a new one-year deal, with The Argus saying “Horton hasn’t been able to find a better replacement at the right price, so Ansah has been given a second chance”.
The manager explained: “He did well, but I was bringing new faces in. I’ve had a good look around and Andy is as good as what we could get. He can score goals and he can play in different positions.”
For his part, Ansah told the newspaper:“Technically I was given a free, but I knew I would be speaking to the gaffer again before pre-season.
“There was still a chance that I was going to get a contract and I’m very pleased that I have. I think Brighton are going to do things this season.”
Although Albion avoided flirting with relegation for the first time in three seasons, their 17th finishing spot was hardly cause to put the flags out, and Ansah made only two starts. He went on as a sub on nine occasions and was an unused sub on nine others.
Horton left mid-season to return to the north, assistant Jeff Wood struggled in a brief spell as no.1, and Micky Adams only arrived to take charge towards the very end. Ansah was one of nine players out of contract and released at the end of the season (the others were Derek Allan, Michael Bennett, Tony Browne, Lee Doherty, Danny Mills, Darragh Ryan, Peter Smith, Storer, Terry Streeter and Paul Sturgess).
While the Albion prepared to return to Brighton to play at the Withdean athletics stadium, Ansah embarked on a career that attracted a hell of a lot more viewers than had seen him perform at the Priestfield Stadium.
Brentford fan Nick Bruzon has told Andy’s remarkable story on a few occasions and his ‘last word’ blog goes into plenty of detail about it.
In summary, though, after leaving Brighton, Ansah worked as an actor for six seasons on the Sky TV football soap Dream Team, appearing for fictional Harchester United.
He recruited two other former Albion players for Harchester: Peter Smith and Junior McDougald. As one of the older players, early on he was asked the best way to shoot certain scenes and within a year he was the producer.
His ability to choreograph football scenes then led him to Hollywood as a consultant on Goal!, a US film trilogy about a Mexican immigrant who gets to play in the English Premiership.
He even got to spend a day working with his all-time hero Pele in Brazil. “He was an unbelievable guy, a real gentleman,” Ansah told the Southend Echo in a 2008 interview with John Geoghegan.
“Because of my footballing background, I can talk to the players and the crew and translate between the two.
“It’s my job to make sure the footballers feel relaxed and do what they do normally in front of a camera.
“Film has always been a big love of mine, ever since school. And with football, to a degree, you are on stage entertaining. So, there are a lot of similarities between the two.”
He choreographed the whole of the Mike Bassett: England Manager film (starring Ricky Tomlinson) and worked on three series of Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker.
As co-presenter of the Sky 1 programme, Ansah scouted the UK for talent, and took to Rooney 100 talented young footballers who he had to whittle down to win the Street Striker crown.
It was with encouragement from contacts in Hollywood that he put his work on a more commercial footing. He set up his own consultancy, Soccer on Screen, and among many football-based advertisements helped Guy Ritchie direct a Nike commercial for the 2010 World Cup. He has also advised EA Sports, makers of the Fifa video games.
Born in Lewisham, south east London, on 19 March 1969, Ansah was a promising winger during his school days and was playing at county level when he started to attract the attention of clubs.
Way before the days of organised academies, he was picked up by Charlton Athletic aged 11 and stayed with them until he was 16. When he turned 17, he signed as a professional at Crystal Palace.
Ansah told Bruzon: “Because I had been in the system from such a young age, I kind of got a bit complacent and a little bit fed up of football.
“When I left Palace, Steve Coppell said to me: ‘I’m not sure if you really want to play football so I’m going to release you.’
After a six-month break from the game, he joined non-league Dorking stayed out of the game for about six months and then joined Dorking, where Dave Goodwin, who had originally scouted him for Charlton, was working.
When he scored 14 goals in three months for Dorking, Brentford, Fulham and Reading all offered him a contract but he chose the Bees because assistant manager Phil Holder promised to pick him up and take him to play for the reserve team, which he was managing.
Ansah scored twice on his first start for Brentford in a 3-2 defeat at Bolton but only made eight appearances after falling out with manager Steve Perryman.
In a reserves match between Brentford and Southend, Ansah scored and caught the attention of Shrimpers boss David Webb, who eventually took him to Roots Hall.
Over the course of six years, he scored 38 goals in 180 appearances for Southend and, as well as Holder, reckoned Webb had been the biggest influence on his career.
“David gave me a licence to express myself,” Ansah told Bruzon. “He would say, ‘I don’t care what the outcome is, just go out there and express yourself.’ It really did work!”
Ansah was part of the United side that earned promotion to Division One (now the Championship) and was later named Southend’s 13th most popular player of all time.
“That in itself is a massive achievement,” he said. “It’s good to know that the fans enjoyed what I was doing when I was there. It’s always nice, to get that sort of feedback.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, when Webb took charge at Brentford, Ansah ended up following him, albeit on loan, scoring just the once (ironically against Brighton in a 2-1 Bees win on 26 November 1994) in four games and again the following season, when he scored once in six appearances.
But Ansah told Bruzon that he didn’t do himself justice because he wasn’t properly fit at that time and, if he had taken medical advice, he probably should have retired because of a knee injury.
“I was fighting to get myself back fit again,” he said. “My first game back I got a cut on my head within 15 minutes and then got it stitched up. I got man of the match but never could regain full fitness. At that stage, the surgeon told me I’d never be fully fit again with my knee.”
He played a couple of games at each of Peterborough, Gillingham and Leyton Orient before dropping out of the league with Hayes, Bromley and Heybridge Swifts.
Ansah’s son Zac spent 10 years with Arsenal’s academy. He moved on to Charlton Athletic when they were in the Championship but didn’t break through and had loan spells with League Two sides Plymouth Argyle and Newport County (playing a total of 26 matches) before moving into non-league football.
In parallel lines 