The Blackstars, our National pride

I believe sober-minded Ghanaians, having followed the AFCOM 2021 to date, will now find it in their hearts to forgive the Back Stars. We must be aware by now that football has evolved on the continent, so there are no longer big or small nations in the sport. Some of us never heard of a country named Comoros until its national team defeated the Black Stars on that faithful Tuesday, 18th January 2022. If we thought it was a fluke, the Comoros team went on to give the host nation, Cameroon, a good run for her money at the 1/16 stage of the tournament, playing with an improvised goalkeeper and a man less, only losing by 2 - 1.

Come to think of it, Algeria, the defending champions, who won the Arab Cup a few days before AFCOM 2021 could not survive the group stage. Even the Nigerian team, the Super Eagles, who were most bookmakers’ favorite to win the trophy crashed out at the 1/16 stage of the competition.


That is why Ghanaians must understand that we cannot continue to live on past glories as four-time winners of the trophy. Having said that, I am aware some people are still so disappointed with the Black Stars performance that they have lost interest in the tournament altogether. The continued post-mortems, recriminations, lamentations, and negative vibes will therefore continue to assail us in various news media. Since freedom of expression is the hallmark of our democratic dispensation, some of us will also continue to exercise that right by reacting to the numerous views on the subject.


One of our former footballers, Tony Yeboah, was recently reported to have said that if your father is not rich, you cannot get a call-up into the Black Stars. Coming from someone who played for the Black Stars for about 13 years, I was really surprised. In Ghana, it is common knowledge that most of those who take to football are those not too interested in education. Except in a few situations, no one with tertiary education background played football professionally.


Indeed, most of our professional players came from deprived areas, especially the Zongo communities. I am not saying this about the Zongo areas in a derogatory sense as I come from Zongo myself. So how could rich parents pay for their children to play football, rather than sponsor them to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, and accountants? How much will a player of the national team earn, such that his father will be eager to pay money for him to be on the national team? It is therefore perplexing, if the report is to be believed, that Tony Yeboah of all people made such a statement.


That has made people conclude that Tony Yeboah was indirectly referring to Abedi Pele, since, in the current Black Stars squad, only Dede Ayew and Jordan Ayew have a prominent father, if not exactly a rich father. People continue to criticize the two boys for no other reason than the fact that they are Abedi’s sons. Some people even call the Black Stars a family team, just because of Dede Ayew and Jordan Ayew. This has even led to calls for one of them to be dropped from the team. The ignorant sports fan could be forgiven for holding such views, but certainly not someone of Yeboah’s background unless he was playing to the gallery.


Any person, who has followed football carefully, will acknowledge that Dede Ayew has already paid his dues to Ghana football. He not only captained the national Under-20 team to win the Youth World Cup but was also one of the standout performers of the Black Stars in the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. He is arguably the most dedicated player in the country and it is no wonder that he is the captain of the national team now, the born leader that he is.


These accolades are not because he is the son of Abedi Pele. I think that, as the son of Abedi Pele, he is even less valued. Surprisingly, he was blamed, rather than comforted, for the red card he received in our match against Comoros. Players are coached to follow up, whenever a shot is taken at goal, to take advantage of any rebound. This was the simple routine Dede followed and unfortunately collided with the onrushing goalkeeper leading to his sending off. In nine out of ten cases, he would not have been dismissed by any other referee for that offense.


Dede has even been faulted for his appointment as the captain of the Black Stars as if he appointed himself. I recently read about people accusing him of coveting the captaincy from Asamoah Gyan and that unless Gyan was reappointed captain, the Black Stars will continue to fail. Fortunately, Gyan himself has distanced himself from such calls, including claims that he and Dede are not on good terms. Others are saying that, after Asamoah Gyan, Kwadwo Asamoah should have been the captain of the team and not Dede Ayew and that the red card shown him was his punishment for snatching the captainship from Kwadwo Asamoah.

How petty!


If Dede Ayew is being lambasted for being shown a red card, then Jordan’s situation is even worse. Some people don’t think he is a good football player, let alone a Black Stars material. To them, he only plays football because of his father. Let me say that Jordan Ayew is one of the most hardworking players, both at the club level and on the national team. Admittedly, the game is about goals and as an attacker, he is expected to be scoring goals. However, football is a team sport and some players must work for others to score. No rule says only attackers must score goals.


In some teams, goalkeepers are the preferred penalty takers. At Real Madrid, in the 2019/2020 league season, Sergio Ramos, a defender, was the second-highest scorer of the team. In modern football, attackers or strikers now do a lot of defending, which is what Jordan does very well, both at the club and national team level.


He breaks up play, dispossesses opponents to feed his mates in better scoring positions, and takes the occasional shot at goal. In the 2019/2020 season, when Jordan was adjudged Crystal Palace Player of the Year, he was also the top scorer of the club. This season, Christian Benteke has scored more goals than Jordan, yet he has featured in matches more than Benteke. He has already won three Man-of-the-Match awards this season, even though he has scored only once. Is his father also paying Patrick Vieira, the coach of Crystal Palace, to play him regularly?


I recall in the Brazil 2014 World Cup, Jordan dribbled the ball past a couple of German defenders and took a shot at goal, instead of passing to another player in a better scoring position. He was taken to the cleaners, described as selfish, greedy, an attention-seeker, and other such uncomplimentary terms. Sometimes an attacker does the unexpected to achieve surprise, which was what Jordan attempted to do. The first goal Ghana conceded against Comoros was because the attacker decided to take a shot at the goal, when many people, including our keeper, expected him to pass. It takes a confident footballer to weave through such a world-class defense, as the German team was, at that time.



On the composition of the Black Stars, I am aware of calls for the dissolution and reconstitution of the team. Those calls are misplaced because the current squad consists of the best players we have in Ghana. The five top leagues in the world are the Premier League in England, La Liga in Spain, League One in France, Bundesliga in Germany, and Liga Italia in Italy, in no particular order.


We have a couple of players playing their trades in these leagues. Others play in Belgium, Portugal, and Turkey. The problem, as I noted in a previous article, is that our technical team was not able to harness those resources. Apart from that, unlike other countries, Ghana has been unable to make use of all the many foreign-based players of Ghanaian descent.


The Equatorial Guinea national team, which reached the quarter-finals of AFCOM 2021, for instance, has about 8 players born in Spain. Almost all their national team players ply their trades abroad. Six of the Sierra Leone team players were born in England, while many others play in foreign leagues. All the so-called small nations that pulled surprises at the tournament have predominantly foreign-based players.


Those advocating for the Black Stars to be composed of local players must be living on another planet. Our league is one of the weakest on the continent, as epitomized by our poor performances in the African inter-club competitions in recent times. Our current champion club, Accra Hearts of Oak were humiliated in the last inter-club competitions, whitewashed by 5-0 and 4-0 in two different competitions. The top scorer of the team that currently leads our premier league, Asante Kotoko, is not a Ghanaian.


The best we can do is to continue to select the few players who distinguish themselves in our league to join the foreign-based ones in the Black Stars. Even then, it will not be long before they also join the exodus bandwagon, even if it is to places such as Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Even countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia, who perform very well in the African inter-club competitions do not have predominantly home-based players in their national squads. Senegal, which is the number one team in Africa, has so single home-based player in its national squad with more than twenty of their players plying their trades in the five top leagues of the world.


Talking of players born abroad, who can play for the national team, I am aware of Hudson Odoi, Eddie Nketia, and Tariq Lamptey, who all play in England. I know overtures have been made to them to play for Ghana to no avail. Maybe they think they can get opportunities to play for the country of their births. When Winfried Zaha opted to play for England, he only succeeded in playing two friendly matches before he wised up and joined the Cote D’Ivoire national side. Danny Welbeck, of Ghanaian parentage, chose England over Ghana but only played a couple of matches before his international career ended.

If he had chosen Ghana, he would now be at his peak. The same thing could happen to the above-mentioned youngsters. For Eddie Nketia, those he played within the junior national teams like Bukayo Saka, Smith Row, Jadon Sancho, and Reese James have all become full internationals. If he does not decide quickly, he will be left behind. In any case, the English national team has an abundance of attacking talents, including Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, and Calvert-Lewin, so Eddie Nketia is not likely to force his way into the team anytime soon. The same thing goes for Tariq Lamptey, with right fullbacks like Alexander Arnold, Kyle Walker, Reese James, and Kieran Trippier all ahead of him. With Hudson Odoi, it appears reality is already dawning on him because he has refused to play for the England youth team again. He is a very talented footballer and has already earned three senior caps for England. However, in the long run, he may only earn a few more caps before they jettison him and he will no longer be eligible to play for Ghana.


By the way, why are these boys not proud of their Ghanaian roots like other players of African origin? Most players who featured in the ongoing AFCOM were born in foreign lands to parents of African origin, in some cases with only one parent being African, but chose to play for the African countries. Most of the players featuring Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt, for example, were born in Europe, played in the junior national teams of those countries, and chose to play for the African countries at senior level.


As for those advocating for the recall of Asamoah Gyan, Kwadwo Asamoah Alfred Duncan, John Boye, and Afriyie Acquah, they must have a second think. Asamoah Gyan and Kwadwo Asamoah have practically retired unless they can resurrect their careers. The last time Asamoah Gyan played in our local league for Legon Cities, he scored zero goals, had zero assists, and was released at the end of the season. Alfred Duncan, John Boye, and Afriyie Acquah are all journeymen footballers who have seen their best days. Of the three, Afriyie Acquah is one, if still in form, would have been needed, because the Black Stars needs a player of his stature and fearlessness.

His last three teams were Empoli, Y. Malatyaspor, and Al-Batin FC, but he is currently unattached. Alfred Duncan has played for 6 different clubs over 16 years, including loan deals, and has never spent more than a year in any one of them. The few times he has played for the Black Stats, he has never excelled in a match. John Boye, in his day, was one of our rock-solid defenders, but after the 2017 AFCOM, he has never been the same. That is not to say that, if they can pick up their forms, they should not be considered. In my opinion, even the fearless Wakaso, always a candidate for a yellow or red card, has his best days behind him and is no longer a viable option in our midfield.


Another fallout from the abysmal performance of the Black Stars in Cameroon is the alleged use of juju by some players. There are reports that some players threatened to withdraw from the Black Stars over the use of juju. It was claimed that some of the players imported spiritualists into their hotel rooms at ungodly hours, which disturbed other players, with their chanting and incantations. Amidst these reports, a video trended showing the team captain Dede Ayew sprinkling what appeared to be some powdery substance on the field of play. If it is true that players’ spiritualists disturbed other players, it must be condemned. However, I think it has been blown out of proportion by our gullible media. Why were no names mentioned and why were we not told whether the said players were Christians, Moslems, or Pagan worshipers.


As for Dede’s action, why is it anybody’s business if, as an individual, he chose to do that, provided it does not offend FIFA regulations? Footballers have their idiosyncrasies and you can call them juju or whatever you want. Some enter the field of play backward, others hop on the same foot twice or thrice as they enter the field. Some make the sign of the cross. Some of our Moslem brothers even go down in prayer on the touchline before entering the field. Will you describe those actions as juju? Why are people who practice their African beliefs ridiculed while others are praised for practicing their westernized beliefs? I am a Christian, but I won’t judge anyone over his beliefs.


If you ask me, people are just spreading these allegations of juju just to create fear and panic. There were allegations that Kudus Mohammed threatened not to play for the Black Stars again because he suspected that someone was using juju on him. The young man has now come out officially to debunk those rumors. Even Mohammed Salisu’s unwillingness to play for Ghana has been attributed to the use of juju, but I am sure the truth will come out one day. Those pedaling such unsubstantiated reports are the real enemies of our football. Whenever there is competition for places in any human endeavor, such rumors may abound. It happens everywhere and at every level. In France, a lady footballer who plays in a certain position allegedly hired thugs to injure the girl who plays in that same position to take the injured girl’s place. She was arrested and later released for lack of evidence. Perhaps that was her form of juju.


Footballers may pray before matches or practice some other form of beliefs, not to harm anybody, but as a safety measure. Some of these practices are just psychological means of psyching themselves before matches or for divine protection. Who remembers Sam Okwaraji and Mark Vivienne Foe, former international footballers of Nigeria and Cameroon respectively? They collapsed and died on the field of play during football matches without known illnesses. So praying or practicing one’s faith before a match may not be to hurt some other person m, but for self-preservation. That is the African belief for you.

Spiritual practices may take different forms. I had an experience with spirituality a long time ago in Israel. I led a group of soldiers to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and we were asked to place our foreheads against the wall to pray and receive whatever blessing we wished for. We did just that, with some of my colleagues staying there for hours. No one can convince me that was not some form of juju. I recall I prayed to God to make me rich, but to date, I am still not rich and I am unlikely to ever be rich, given my advanced age. Today, as a Christian, I am convinced that I can pray to God in faith in my village, Yogibania, and be delivered, healed, and blessed without needing to bruise my forehead against a wall in faraway Jerusalem for God to answer me. Of course, I will always treasure the opportunity of visiting the Birthplace of our Lord Jesus Christ.


As usual, Honorable Members of Parliament (MPs) also had their say on the Black Stars' poor performance in Cameroon. I was happy with the dispassionate manner in which the issue was discussed, even though some of the suggestions made were only useful for their humor value. Those who have been involved with sports or football, in one way or the other, made very cogent suggestions which, going forward, could help the football authorities in the country.


Some however played the usual political games associated with parliamentary debates to enhance their political interests. Some called for the team to be dissolved, others for the management committee to be reconstituted and others even for the president to resign. I was however disappointed with one member who advocated for Black Stars not to honor the world cup playoffs against Nigeria for the simple reason that it would be a waste of funds since Ghana was bound to lose. As a politician, I wondered how he could make such a suggestion.

How many politicians, knowing that they stood no chance of winning, have not gone ahead to contest elections? In the 2020 elections, some candidates knew that they would not win, yet went ahead to contest and lose miserably. In the presidential elections, for example, some candidates scored less than 1% of the total votes cast but were not convinced to chicken out before the elections. In the same way, there is no reason why Ghana should refuse to honor the matches against Nigeria, which could even lead to sanctions by the world football governing body.


That is not to say that I agree with those who say that Ghana will lose to Nigeria. Football is not logical and you cannot easily predict the outcome of a football match based on the results of past matches. Second Division clubs are known to have knocked out premier league sides in FA competitions. Moreover, it is not uncommon for teams at the bottom half of the league table to beat teams at the top. For example, the mighty Bayern Munich, which tops the Bundesliga, was soundly beaten 5-0 by Borussia Monchengladbach on 23rd October 2021, a team occupying the 12th position in the league table. Just last Sunday, Bayern Munich, which still tops the league table, again lost by 4-1 to Hertha Berlin, which occupies the 13th position. I am not implying that Ghana is inferior to Nigeria. The results of some of the matches in the ongoing AFCOM 2012I should tell us that, any team can beat any other team in football today. Even the Super Eagles themselves are apprehensive about the playoffs because they are aware that Ghana-Nigeria matches do not follow any form guide.


As we await the playoffs, the coach of the Black Stars has been fired. Reports have it that the GFA sacked the coach, but we all know that it is the Ministry of Youth and Sports that remote-controlled his sack, perhaps fearing FIFA’s wrath if it is revealed that the government interfered with football administration in the country. I still believe it was ill-advised because we appear to be going in circles. The GFA is now hunting for a new coach with less than two months to the playoffs. Whoever is appointed may not get even a week to train the team for the two matches, since the clubs which pay the players’ salaries will not release them for any reasonable length of time to prepare. Why don’t we adopt the Nigerian example by appointing the Technical Director to handle the team until a substantive coach is appointed? I don’t think the GFA trusts its Technical Director. I don’t trust him either.

So why was he appointed?

When the GFA was hunting for a coach, following the firing of CK Akonnor, I thought we would either go in for a top expatriate coach, who would demand $100,000 a month, or settle for a local coach. The GFA chose the easiest way out by going in for Milovan Rajevac, who was old wine in new wineskins.


It backfired badly and we are back to square one. Even then, in my opinion, Milo should have been maintained for the world cup playoffs and then fired if he failed to qualify for the World Cup. I believe that the Black Stars used the AFCOM to train and would have done well in the playoffs. The team improved from the first match to the third match and would have been even better if there was the fourth match. In the only friendly encounter the team played, it was apparent that the coach did not even know his first team, since some of the players were new. Now the die is cast and we have to look ahead.


Many local coaches have been suggested while some others have offered themselves, even though they are not known to have successfully coached any team. I am told Chris Hughton is in town, ostensibly to lobby for the job. If news on social media is to be believed, Otto Addo and George Boateng are also in the reckoning. In my opinion, Otto Addo has not shown any interest in the Black Stars, given his preference as an assistant coach in his club side to his role as one of Milo’s assistants. That is a clear sign of disloyalty, so he cannot be trusted.

That leaves Chris Hughton and George Boateng, but to date, Boateng has only coached a youth team and cannot suddenly be entrusted with a national team job. Chris Hughton is therefore the obvious choice. I will also urge the GFA to consider Mas-Ud Didi Dramani, who I am told, has topped every coaching course he has attended, both locally and internationally. He has also served as an assistant at Nordsjjaelland Football Club in Sweden. If not in the short term, he might be useful in the long term.


Let me confess that I am not one of those who are averse to having a foreigner coach the Black Stars. Until our coaches can favorably compete with foreign coaches, we may have a keep using the foreign coaches, provided we have the resources to hire them. Even England, which introduced the game of football to the world, used a foreign coach, in Sven Goren Eriksson from 2001 – 2006.
At the expense of being a victim of butt jokes, let me say that the Black Stars could have won the ongoing AFCOM with a little bit of luck. There were small margins between the teams and Ghana could have done better, but for the poor preparation of the team.

I have always held the view that, in tournaments, winning all matches in the group stage is not necessary, as long as a team qualifies for the knockout stages of the competition. Take Egypt and Burkina Faso for instance, who lost their opening matches, but are now in the semi-finals while the Super Eagles of Nigeria, who won all their group matches, have since departed Cameroon. I am not a prophet, but I believe that we can qualify for the World Cup at the expense of Nigeria. That will however depend on what happens to the team between now and March when we engage Nigeria in the playoffs. Even without Captain Dede Ayew, Ghana is capable of beating Nigeria on aggregate to qualify for Qatar 2022. Let the Black Stars prove me right.


I will end this piece by appealing to fellow Ghanaians that whatever we write or say about the Black Stars, our overriding concern should be the best interest of our dear nation, Ghana. By all means, let us criticize the players, the technical team, the football administrators, even the government when they fail. However, in doing so, let’s do it constructively because Ghana is the only country we have.