Man stabbed to death was ‘glue’ to basketball club

COACH SAID ALI ABUCAR ALI ‘WAS LIKE A SON TO ME’

THE basketball coach of a man stabbed to death in Brentford on Friday says he was “like a son” and was “the glue” that held their basketball club together.

Chiswick Gators coach Michael Kwentoh, 40, first met Ali Abucar Ali when he was just 12-years-old while coaching him and his classmates at Chiswick School.

Before long the “really passionate” kids “begged” him to set up a club because the lessons at school were “not enough”, leading him to start the Gators in 2016.

Kwentoh says Ali was the driving force behind the club and stayed long after his classmates grew up and moved on.

He said: “When he was 15 he first started coaching, he was coming with me to different primary schools.

“The birth of the club was just through him, Ali was the glue, everyone else grew out of it but he stayed.

“Every session I had he would come along as my assistant. He was the best, he was an angel.”

He added: “I was just a regular guy who did it as a hobby. I never thought I could create a club, but he believed in me.

“He would say ‘Coach this is going well, the kids are loving it’, it kept me going to keep pushing more.

“We would not have this club if Ali was not by my side. You cannot pay millions of pounds for the type of loyalty he gave.

“I watched him grow up through GCSE, A-Level, university and not once did he tell me about any of his problems.

“He made me feel like he was my son.”

Mr Kwentoh also described Ali’s natural affinity to coaching, remembering how a child turned up for the first time and immediately asked if Ali could host a basketball birthday party.

“He could not believe it himself, he did not ever believe he could have that effect.”

He also highlighted Ali’s work with getting more girls playing basketball, recalling one parent who said: “Ali made her daughter feel so proud and confident and able to play.”

After Ali’s death on Friday November 12, Mr Kwentoh was distraught and said he would be breaking the news to the children at training this week.

He said: “I honestly don’t know what is going to happen, there were so many kids he coached.

“I have got so many texts from families saying my children would not be playing basketball if it was not for Ali.”

He added Ali’s commitment to the team was so strong he was taking night shifts at a factory while studying accountancy at Kingston University, just so he could keep coaching at the club.

“Ali just looked up to me, he just believed in it more than I did sometimes.

“Ali devoted himself to helping me, so I will devote myself to helping his family, that’s all I can do.”

Describing Ali’s basketball ability, Mr Kwentoh said “at first he was not as talented as the others but he recognised his own weakness and he knew what he was good at”.

Then after improving his jump shot and playing for the U18s at London Lions, in east London, “that was when he flourished the most”.

He added: “Even though he was the smallest guy in the court, and not the strongest, he never quit.”

Mr Kwentoh said training on Friday November 12 finished at 7pm like normal and with Ali now driving he could have gone anywhere.

According to Mr Kwentoh though, he chose to stop off at the kebab shop on Albany Road to get food for his mum who he was devoted to looking after. By 8pm Ali was dead. Mr Kwentoh said: “He’s never had an argument with anyone.

“Ali would stay at home with his mum while others went out and he even got a car just to help his mum out. This guy was not a fighter, he was very fragile and very slim, a very sweet guy.”