In 1982, long before I was born, The Black Stars of Ghana did the nation proud by winning its fourth AFCON title, much to the excitement and pride of the Nation, I would imagine; since personally I cannot wait for the Black Stars to lift the trophy again soon! What a day it would be. If the joy and pride I felt when AC Milan last won the UEFA Champions League title is anything to go by, then to say I would be ecstatic will be the understatement of the century.<\/p>\n
I would not even pretend to be an astute follower of football, I barely remember the facts and the figures as displayed by many other people. I barely even remember the names of the players who played in the last AFCON for Ghana in 2015, yes, I remember the usual suspects, but that\u2019s as far as it goes. So before going ahead to read this article, take this to be my disclaimer.<\/p>\n
In the year 2014, the Black Stars of Ghana, took on the task of representing the Nation at the World Cup, and on the back of their astounding performances in South Africa, 4 years back, I was filled with childish glee and optimism, the Black Stars (B.S)<\/em><\/strong> were going to win the tournament! As fate or rather, misfortune will have it, the team put up a woeful performance, which in part stemmed from monetary disagreements and failed promises of the government of the day. Again, I must exercise responsibility and caution here, and state that, this claim, is based mainly from commentary and snippets of information picked up in the heat of the moment and during the Dzamefe Commission hearing. From this moment on, seeds of discord and animosity towards the B.S<\/em><\/strong>. were sown in the hearts of Ghanaians. Why did they put their blood-thirst for money before patriotism? A question I asked myself, a question, I am still looking forward to asking any of the leaders of the team. Like the many millions of Ghanaians, I have been left heartbroken and downtrodden because I expected the B.S <\/em><\/strong>to have placed more premium on making the nation proud. Let me make a confession, the urge to burn the two Black Stars jerseys I bought from the Puma Shop in the Accra Mall (trust me, they are not cheap!<\/em> They are still worn anyway<\/em>) was mooted, a sign of my personal detest for the team, however, I have since moved on from this point.<\/p>\n In 2015, the Black Stars were again in action, two penalties, would prove to be the hindrance from our history making quest, but did people care? No! Why? Because of the abhorrence they have for the Ghana Black Stars. Why? Because the general impression is that the players are overpaid and not patriotic. Now, I\u2019ve deeply pondered on this, \u201cAre the Black Stars Players unpatriotic because they demanded their due or typically as Ghanaians we\u2019re just being hypocritical?\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n As mentioned, the last time the Black Stars annexed the trophy was in 1982, which would beg the question, where are the players of the 82 squad? In fact, scratch that, the most important question to ask is: WHO<\/strong> are the members of the 82 squad? They are but distant memories in the minds of majority of Ghanaians, and non-existent in the minds of the younger generation. Yet say the name: Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, Zidane and you would see the gleam in their eyes! Their tales have been told severally, their praises has been sung so many times, you would think they have paid payola. Even the autocorrect feature in Microsoft Word will correct you if you make an error in the spelling of their names! These people are \u201cgods\u201d <\/strong>idolized by their fellow countrymen! These are people whose exploits will forever remain, etched into the hearts and minds of people who love football! Even on the African continent, the name George Oppong Weah still resonates till this day. I was not born early enough to watch Mohammed Polo but videos of the exploits of Polo and oral history of his dribbling and mesmerizing abilities of opponents on the pitch can easily be compared to the likes of Lionel Messi in contemporary times.\u00a0 The likes of Willie Klutse, Awuley Quaye (Snr), Samson Lamptey, Peter Akwei Maclean and Rev. Osei Kofi were as good as the current Black Stars players, in some cases even better. Where are they today? What is their economic and financial state today? The 1963 Black Stars team was promised a house each by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a promise which has not been honored up till date.<\/p>\n Is it to say, these plyers were not patriotic enough? Why aren\u2019t their names resonating as much as it should? Where are the streets and statues erected for them (Lord Zlatan has a statue in Sweden)?<\/em> What have we as a people done for our \u201cHeroes\u201d? The people who fought and risked life and limb to win us the glorious titles as the Champions of Africa. Or perhaps, they are living in so much comfort, an appropriate compensation for their valour. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but many of these players live in abject poverty or died paupers.<\/p>\n In fact, let me stretch this a little. One of the vivid memories of a match involving Ghana in my childhood was Ali Jarrah, a goalie very well admired! In 1993, he got injured whilst keeping posts for Ghana and his career ended. Last year, he said \u201cDay in and out, I am heading towards my grave. They will wait till I die before they remember me. If I got paralyzed at 17 dying for my nation, what does the nation expect me to do now after 23 years? <\/em><\/strong> Let me not even talk of Jones Atequayefio of blessed memory, lest my hearts break even more.<\/p>\n Previously the complaint was the players do not play for national pride! Where is the pride in living and dying as a pauper! Where is the pride in having to beg for sympathizers to come to your aid so you can feed or pay your medical bills? Someone explain to me where the pride is. Yet, we want them to risk it all and risk suffering the same fate as the so called \u201cHeroes\u201d<\/em><\/strong>?<\/p>\n We are victims of our own hypocrisies. If I say, lets name a street after Asamoah Gyan, if one is not slapped, someone will ask, \u201cah didn\u2019t we pay him winning bonus and appearance fees?\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Or say let\u2019s build a statue in Gyan\u2019s honour you would be told, \u201cafter that useless penalty he took against Uruguay?\u201d <\/em><\/strong>Yet we forget that even though Zidane cost France the 2006 World Cup trophy over his moment of madness, he is still adored in his country and hailed a Hero.<\/p>\n Now the Black Stars have agreed to have their bonuses slashed and still Ghanaians are unwilling to get behind the team and support them, to the point where people actually jubilate when the Stars lose a match. All we are doing is cutting our noses to spite our faces. Wherein lies our patriotism when we want the people who are representing the country to lose? We want the players to die for Ghana, yet as Ghanaians are we prepared to do same?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a Facebook post, one Nathan Gadugah<\/strong> put more succinctly;<\/p>\n \u201cIt is only when Black Stars plays that we hear the lessons on patriotism and the need for our players to be patriotic.<\/em><\/p>\n Surprisingly the lessons are coming from the politicians who steal and misappropriate our scarce national resources; from journalists who take monies from politicians and bury the truth; from commercial drivers who have never in their lives respected our road traffic regulations and have killed people as a result; from business men who connive with politicians AND fleece our resources; from students who cheat in exams and head masters and mistresses who collect bribes before admitting qualified students to school; from police men who collect bribes from people, drivers and look on when the wrong things are done; from voters who elect people into office not because they genuinely believe these people are able to develop our country but because of what they will benefit directly when these people go into office. All these people believe in self-interest but pontificate about patriotism. Our Black Stars players are Ghanaians, not Europeans or Americans. They grew up learning that self-interest is more important than love for a country. And to be blunt the country which they are supposed to die for has done nothing for their predecessors who ‘died’ serving this country. I will not pretend to be more patriotic than these players and I pray no one does. These players cannot unlearn the bad practice of self-interest only because citizens have decided to withdraw their national support. It will take some time. But more importantly it will take those who are riding on horses and standing on roof tops preaching patriotism to live by what they preach. Let’s all be patriotic if we want our black stars to be patriotic.\u201d <\/em>(culled from https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/ngadugah\/posts\/10211282553489235<\/a>)<\/p>\n TRUST ME, IT IS BETTER TO RATHER BE UNPATRIOTIC AND COMFORTABLE, THAN BE HAILED A NATIONAL HERO, WHO WILL DIE A PAUPER AND WHOSE NAME WILL NOT BE REMEMBERED. <\/strong><\/p>\n As Ghanaians, till we stop being hypocritical, we will not make any significant headway in any field.<\/p>\n I unreservedly support the Ghana Black Stars, they have their issues, but I will not be a hypocrite!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By:\u00a0Albert Welle Ali and Eugene B.G Bawelle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1982, long before I was born, The Black Stars of Ghana did the nation proud by winning its fourth AFCON title, much to the excitement and pride of the Nation, I would imagine; since personally I cannot wait for the Black Stars to lift the trophy again soon! What a day it would be. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[374],"tags":[42,2560],"yoast_head":"\n
\nI leave this to the world to judge. You can share my little story amongst friends and brothers so they know. When I die, I died because of pain\u201d<\/em><\/strong>. (culled from http:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/NewsArchive\/I-am-dying-slowly-Ali-Jarrah-402652<\/a>) and this is the fate of a young man who was on the verge of signing a deal with German club side Cologne. If he had opted not to keep during that tournament, perhaps, he would have made a truckload of money to last generations, yet for his love for Ghana, that failed to materialize. Twice, Michael Essien suffered potentially career ending injuries whilst playing for the national team. Again, his patriotism nearly cost him his career! Yet when he dodged a few games for Ghana, we labelled him a traitor, an ungrateful brat. Now his career has taken a nosedive, (resulting from his injuries suffered whilst playing for Ghana<\/em>), all of a sudden, no one cares about Michael Essien anymore! The one time hailed hero of Ghana.<\/p>\n