Real Tamale United is one of the oldest exciting clubs in the Ghana Premier League.

RTU is the pride of Tamale. They pride themselves as one of the best talent hubs in Ghana football, producing top players who established themselves at the Black Stars, Africa, and the World at large.

Ghana and African football icon Abedi Pele lead a tall list of talented players produced by the Talame-based side.

However, the story of how RTU was birth is rarely talked about.

Former player Ahmed Dauda, in an interview with Dan Kwaku Yeboah, narrated the interesting story of how RTU was formed.

According to Dauda, RTU was birthed from two tamale clubs, Real Sportive and Northern United.

He noted that RTU would have not been known existent without then Regional Minister, Col. Azumah.

Col. Azumah, of blessed memory, is said to have proposed the idea of having two strong Tamale-based teams who can survive and compete in the Ghanaian top flight after several failures by the then-five existing teams, Savannah Stars, Hammthan, Begywa United, Northern United, and Real Sportive.

Dauda narrated that Azumah, who was keen on the idea, held a meeting with all the clubs and proposed the idea to them, calling for a merger to form two teams. Dauda said he had joined Northern United in 1976( the year the merger happened).

The ex-Black Stars player continued that, following the meeting, Real Sportive and Northern United bought the idea and decided to merge.

Real Sportive decided to use their first name for the new club while Northern United used their last name for the merger. They both, therefore, agreed on Real United as the name.

Dauda concluded that when the two clubs presented their merger acceptance and the club name to Col. Azumah, he suggested that they include Tamale in it, hence the name, Real Tamale United.

The official meager occurred in September 1976.


Watch Ahmed Dauda's narration via the video below at minute 10