blank
search-icon
Sports

The Reason Why Africa and in Particular Ghana Does Not Make Meaningful Impact On The Biggest Stage Of Global Football!

Black-Starlets
Black-Starlets

The football fraternity in Ghana received a rather embarrassing moment few weeks ago when the U-17 team, the Black Starlet were disqualified from taking part in the next edition of the U-17 Africa tournament.

This became necessary when Cameroun protested, saying Ghana presented over age players. CAF, the governing body of football on the continent after much investigation, sanctioned Ghana.

This development has cast an indelible dent on the image of the country. The truth of the matter is, the Cameroonians are themselves culpable of the very accusation they accused Ghana of since none of their players is truly U-17 in my estimation. It is palpable their age rate is marginal and that is why they have been able to outsmart the Ghanaians.

Ghana and Nigeria boast of an enviable record of six world cup trophies between them in the under seventeen level. Ghana has gone further to break a long time jinx by winning the U-20 world cup in Egypt in 2009, a feat that has never be done before by any African side. Yes, such is the staggering record between the two powerhouses of Africa football. They have help registered a good impression about Africa’s prowess in football to the rest of the world but I dare say with much authority that Africa has done this in a dubious way, defeating the objective for which FIFA introduced this scheme 1985.

Non African participants of youth tournaments have impetuously protested about the blatant age-cheating of Africans especially Ghana and Nigeria. In Africa, our diet is heavily laden with carbohydrates so lots of people have stunted growth. Their stature and age doesn’t match hence it becomes so easy for them to infiltrate tournaments with over-age players as opposed to the whites who are very tall and “big” but  are actually young.

Africa has not won the world cup before (and I don’t think they will ever win) because of this deception. Lots of European players who migrated from the U-17 level are still playing active football but not much can be said about our African players.

Since they falsify their ages, nemesis catches up with them sooner than later. They become weary and are always saddled with injuries that keep them away from the game.

The term “football age” has been coined out of this palpable deception. It’s not uncommon to hear players who are as old as Methuselah say they are several years younger when they want to play in the lucrative major leagues outside the African domain.

Lionel Messi, Fabregas, Toni Kroos, and a host of other players who were former products of these tournaments are still playing beautiful football whiles their counterparts from Africa are “nowhere” their level.

Come to think of it, African players have been adjudged best players and highest goal scorers respectively in youth tournaments but have not been able to replicate this into the senior level.

In 1997 a certain Ronaldo, who later changed his name to Ronaldihno dazzled the world with his soccer artistry. In that year Ghana and Brazil met in the finals and Brazil finally won the cup. Ronaldo is still playing in his native land.

We also had our own Ronaldo, in the person of Owusu Afriyie who because of his magical touches was nicknamed, ‘Bayie’ or the ‘wizard.’ Dan Quaye, Osei Boateng, Godwin Attram and other players who were members of the Starlet team that year are no longer in the system because their old body couldn’t endure the vigorous and abrasive nature of the game.

Samuel Eto’o felt offended when his former trainer, Jose Mourihno jibed him for his apparent old age, which doesn’t correlate the age that he claims he has.

Ask Micheal Essien how old he is and he will tell you he is thirty or something less than that. Taribo West of Nigeria, Richard Kingston of Ghana and the endless list of them are alleged to have all falsified their age—it’s very apparent on their faces that they are old men.

The Ghana football association should see this ban as a blessing in disguise. Real U-17 players can be obtained from primary and junior high school.

We should not go to these youth tournaments solely to win but provide the means to equip the senior team to annex laurels in that department in the future. CAF must look into this, very well and sanction all teams in Africa who flout this law.



READ ALSO: Refused A UK Visa? CLICK HERE FOR HELP

CLICK HERE to subscribe to our daily up-to-date news!!

POPULAR POSTS

LATEST NEWS

MORE FROM Sports

No related posts found...

1 thought on “The Reason Why Africa and in Particular Ghana Does Not Make Meaningful Impact On The Biggest Stage Of Global Football!”

  1. O boy you can talk for Ghana but don’t mention Nigeria, we win clean and fair. The last under 17 world cup, players were screened with MRI , all our players passed and still won the tourney. Don’t know what you ‘re talking about mehn . lol

    Reply

Leave a Reply