The Ghana Football Association has joined the rest of the country to mourn with the headline sponsor of the senior national team, GoldFields Ghana following the death of Brenden Walker, the mining company’s former manager director for the country.

Brenden Walker, who passed away a couple of weeks back after a freak motor accident in South Africa was the managing director of the mining giants when the Ghana Football Association brokered a $3 million sponsorship deal with GoldFields Ghana for the senior national side, the Black Stars.

In a message, the Football Association expressed shock and sorrow of the death of the mining executive.

“We view Brenden Walker’s death as a great loss not only to his family, friends and the GoldFields family but also to the Ghana Football Association at large and in particular the Black Stars team.

“Mr Walker during his tenure as managing director of GoldFields Ghana provided an inspirational leadership for his company to broker the landmark sponsorship deal of USD 3million over a three-year period from 2006 to 2008. We recall with great admiration the high level of energy, dynamism and personal involvement Mr Brenden Walker infused into the whole negotiation process that sometimes required us meeting over long hours deep into the night to enable us meet various deadlines.

“The present success story of the Black Stars can be attributed to a very large extent on the GoldFields sponsorship and more particularly to the personal involvement of Brenden to ensure that the noble dream saw the light of the day. There is no way the success story of the Black Stars which we are basking in, can be mentioned without recognizing the uniquely inspirational role played by Brendan.

“We mourn his loss with his family, friends, GoldFields Ghana and South Africa and pray the Lord Almighty to keep his soul in his bossom. We do recognise that the vacuum created by his soul will be difficult to fill, but we will still find solace in the fact that he led a fulfilling life and touched the lives and hearts of all he came into contact with.

“Fare thee well great brother and friend. May his soul rest in perfect peace,” the FA statement read.