Dear African Football Players,
You’ll agree with us that football has moved from the gritty, physical exertion game it used to be in the past to a more fluid, tactical game. You’ll also agree with us that size doesn’t necessarily matter anymore in football but rather pure skills? We have seen midgets run at amazing pace and score breathtaking goals.
We have watched you play during this FIFA World Cup and heartbreakingly watch on as countries we used to consider minnows or nobodies display such brilliance in football , only for you players to be caught ball watching or tackle senselessly thereby getting a booking from the referee. It’s a sad spectacle to see balls zipping past you with calculated angles whilst your stamina and strength cannot carry you on.
Most of these foreign players are far older than you (per your football age) yet display amazing pedigree when it comes to speed and agility. What happened? Is it the case of the older the faster? We watch you on TVs as you sport outrageous hairstyles. What is the importance of that attention seeking hairdo? To attract viewership to your clumsy style of play.
Football has evolved. The leathery football has also undergone massive transformation. Football is now about trajectory, it’s about wind speed and velocity. Football is now about curvature. Do you know if a ball is played at a certain speed and bent at a certain tangential angle it can produce results that are breath taking? Football is about physics, it’s now about mathematics heck it’s even more about biology and chemistry now.
Football is a contact sports, that we both know, it doesn’t make it rugby or American football; neither can you equate it to Sumo wrestling. Football is about mentality now, it’s about playing to the last minute call of the referee. There are no room for complacency and tardiness.
It breaks our heart when we see you play with no formation. It grieves our soul when we see you fumble in the 18 yard box as to lacking ideas to a clinical finish. It gets our goat when we see you kick balls feebly; more feeble than a toddlers kick whilst the ball rolls into the waiting arms of the goalkeeper like a mother hugging a toddler.
We would want to see you play beautiful soccer that has results; soccer that holds us spellbound, awed and amazed at such finesse and dexterity. We’re tired of always being disappointed during world cup competitions. We are ashamed whilst we watch you outclassed, outshone and outpaced and we bow our heads in shame when we see you engage in unsporting and unruly behaviors.
We’re tired of hearing physical nicknames attributed to you, we want more than physical play; we want intelligent play. Bring back what you learn in the whiteman’s land during your trade. Let us believe that you didn’t just leave our continent in search of only monetary gains; show to us you learnt something that cannot be taken from you: show us you’ve perfected the art of football.
Sadly yours
Millions of disappointed African Fans
By: Francis Obirikorang/citifmonline.com/Ghana