Vikings’ Brian Asamoah II is helping bring football to Ghana, and he’s taking teammates along for the journey

Fifteen years ago, Vikings linebacker Brian Asamoah II was on a family trip to Ghana when he told some kids there he played football.

They didn’t know what he was talking about.

Asamoah, then 10, had to clarify he wasn’t talking about soccer. He didn’t have a football with him to show them anything about the game.

When Asamoah returned to the United States after a year living with his uncle in Ghana, that interaction stuck with him.

He was going to bring football to the country of his heritage.

Asamoah is an NFL ambassador to Ghana, the country from which his parents emigrated before he was born. He is helping grow flag football there as the league pushes its brand globally, in part because flag football will be a medal event in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Asamoah spoke at the league meetings in Eagan alongside teammate Justin Jefferson as the NFL’s Global Flag Ambassadors in May, when the league announced its players would be allowed to try out for Olympic flag football teams.

The appearance came a few weeks after Asamoah returned from a trip to Accra, Ghana, where he hosted a national flag football talent scouting camp on March 29 — his 25th birthday — at the University of Ghana.

The difference between the interest in football when Asamoah visited at 10 years old to now is “crazy,” he said.

“I went back down there this year, and I said ‘football’ and they all eyes were open,” Asamoah said during Vikings minicamp last month. “Eager to play. Eager to listen. It’s actually truly amazing to see how the growth of the game is in Africa itself.”

Vikings teammates Aaron Jones and Jordan Addison accompanied Asamoah to Ghana.

Addison, a close friend whom Asamoah asked to join months in advance, said he gave an “immediate yes” and was “counting down the days.”

Jones received the invite in thanks for “substantial” financial contributions to Asamoah’s Be Authentic Foundation, Asamoah said. Jones was already committed to a separate, league-sponsored offseason trip but wanted to make the trip to Ghana work, too.

“We’re trying to grow the game of football internationally, and he’s helping do that,” Jones said of Asamoah. “We know the kids there, they don’t have the resources, or really have been taught the correct way to play. Just going over there, being an open book for them and just supporting my teammate as well.”

At the scouting camp, Asamoah, Jones, Addison and other volunteers ran participants through scouting combine-style drills.

Jones could see the athleticism and skills from playing soccer and rugby would translate to playing football.

Addison was surprised by how much talent he saw, particularly at wide receiver. The players were more polished than he expected, running solid routes with good footwork.

“I was just wondering, ‘How?’ to be honest,” Addison said. “It was a lot of great talent out there. I feel like with the right training, though, they could take it anywhere they wanna go.”

Each player separately recounted the story of one kid, who arrived when the camp was near its end after an hourslong bus journey and ran a 4.4-second 40-yard dash with little to no stretching.

At the end of camp, Asamoah gave out over 200 pairs of cleats donated by his Vikings teammates and staff.

Video shared by Asamoah to his Instagram shows the excited scene: Kids running up from out of frame to claim their pair, wearing them draped over their shoulders by the laces, rushing to change out of plastic or foam slides and try on the cleats.

Jones witnessed one kid pick up a pair three sizes too big and declare he’d “make it work.” Jones told Asamoah after that he didn’t need to wait until the end of the season to send cleats over. He has plenty.

“It was surreal to me,” Jones said. “I think the trip kind of changed my life.”

The life-changing aspect of the trip extended beyond the football experience. Jones and Addison stayed with Asamoah in Ghana after the camp so he could show them all the country has to offer.

“I wasn’t gonna bring them to Ghana and half-step,” Asamoah said.

The food was a big hit, from locally grown produce to regional dishes like jollof rice.

Addison said he ate lots of mangoes, which are grown widely across Africa. He tried “a little bit of everything,” including Ghanaian egg stew and “red red,” a dish that includes black-eyed peas, plantains and often tinned fish.

The real highlight of the cultural part of the trip? Meeting the Honorable Gã Mantse, king of Accra.

“It was crazy,” Jones said. “I never thought I’d meet a king.”

Said Addison: “It was a lot going through my mind. To me, I’m thinking it’s just like meeting the president, kind of, but on their side of the world. I didn’t know what to expect.”

Jones and Addison wore traditional Ghanaian garments like Asamoah and his brother for the meeting. As a sign of respect before entering, they had to do a cultural dance, with little instruction except for watching the Asamoahs go before them.

Asamoah and Addison also traveled to the Cape Coast Castle, which started as a trading post for gold, wood and textiles before being used to hold enslaved Africans before their transport to the Americas. It’s now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The March trip was the first to Africa for Jones and Addison; both said the work they did and Asamoah’s passionate guiding ensured it won’t be the last.

“I’d go back every year,” Addison said.

For Asamoah, growing football in Ghana goes hand-in-hand with bringing more eyes and understanding to the country.

It worked with his teammates.

Jones acknowledged he “definitely had the wrong perception of Africa” before the trip. He didn’t know how developed infrastructure was in Ghana, didn’t realize it had luxury items like in the U.S.

Asamoah said he was purposeful in not speaking too much about what Ghana was like before giving his teammates the opportunity to see it for themselves.

“I think America itself has their perspective on what life out in Africa is,” Asamoah said.

Ghana is among 36 countries, 25 of which are in Africa, facing potential travel bans on their citizens to the U.S.

Asamoah hasn’t made a decision on whether to try out for the U.S. or Ghana flag football teams for the 2028 Olympics. He said he would be open to a coaching role with the Ghanaian team as another option.

Jones and Addison have expressed interest in competing at the Olympics. The NFL ruled in May that players would be allowed to try out for teams but with limitations on how many players from each club can be rostered for each of the six competing countries.

Another part of the NFL’s efforts to grow globally is its expanding slate of regular-season international games; the league is playing for the first time next season in Berlin, Madrid and Dublin. The Dublin game will feature the Vikings against the Steelers.

Asamoah said it’d be “unbelievable” to one day play an NFL game in Ghana. It could help show how much the country is growing.

“Ghana is the place to be,” he said. “Ghana is where it’s gonna be, future tense.”

Asamoah has made good on taking the sport he loves to his family’s country.

Now, he wants to show Ghana’s talent to the rest of the world.