The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has over the years been maligned rightfully or wrongfully for any and everything negative pertaining to Ghana soccer, but that has honestly gotten quite mundane and thus imperative to critically review and assess the activities and efforts of other stakeholders and their impact on soccer development in Ghana. In a recent article entitled “Ghana Soccer – The Roadmap To Sustainable Success” I took a perfunctory look at the various stakeholders involved in Ghana’s soccer development efforts and how each party could enhance its efforts and work in consonance with each other to produce effective and sustainable outcomes. This article is, however, aimed primarily at taking an in depth look at certain issues relating to the soccer players.

Sports or soccer for that matter is very integral to the joy, pride and happiness of its followers and thus the actions and inactions of the players on and off the field cannot be considered inconsequential. It is to this extent that I have been inundated by the sheer ‘waste’ of Ghanaian soccer talents owing primarily to issues bordering on behaviours, attitudes, perceptions, choices and priorities among others. Has anyone wondered why the Seedorf’s, Veron’s, Gallardo’s etc. are still actively playing and on good teams whereas the Odartey Lamptey’s, Daniel Addo’s, Sebastian Barnes’, Emmanuel Asare’s, Ransford Banini’s, Yaw Preko’s, Gargo Mohammed’s etc. find themselves entrenched in our bins of oblivion? I am no judge of people’s sense of satisfaction and fulfillment and hopefully they’re doing something meaningful with themselves but the question remains could they have better maximized their opportunities had they been a little bit more circumspect in their choices, approach and overall outlook. I do not profess to be the repository of all knowledge but hopefully these points of concern will resonate in the minds and hearts of the current and up and coming stars, and serve as a blueprint to guide them on their soccer path and help avert some of the ominous mistakes of their predecessors.

The first issue of concern is the skewed perception about going to play professional soccer overseas. That in itself is not misplaced except that most of the local players consider that as an end in itself as opposed to viewing it as a means to an end. Because they’re so fixated on leaving some, if not all, do not take time to hone their skills, enhance their repertoire and get the basic rudiments of the game down packed and end up too soon realizing they bargained for more than they could afford. Most of the players presumably come from poor financial backgrounds and quite understandably will be consumed by the urge to go abroad, but that urge if not properly channeled results in players finding themselves in certain countries which make them laughing stocks of themselves. With all due respect and no intent of discrimination, any player bent on going professional in countries like India, China, Venezuela etc. should ask himself hard questions as to whether soccer is his heavenly destined profession. Other players also get so enthused about going to play abroad that they throw common sense out of the window. Once upon a time a player known to me in Dansoman went for a trial in Italy in November and neither he nor his agent/manager thought it prudent to have him at least try to have a semblance of acclimatization in say Aburi or the ‘mountains’ and upon return exclaimed ‘charley, awor wor Italy paa ooo!!!’. Don’t let going to play abroad be an end in itself but let your first contract motivate and stir in you a hunger to excel and do all that’s humanly possible to reach unto higher pedestals.

The second issue of paramount importance is what I term self deception. For obvious reasons certain personalities connive with some or most players to engage in indiscretions by way of manipulating ages but thank goodness the GFA Chairman has promised to crack down on such cheats. I’m not overly perturbed by that because like in American parlance sometimes ‘you got to do what you got to do” but the worrisome part for me is that these players remain delusional and revel in their soccer ages in total disregard to the physiological constraints of their true ages. What am I saying here? Let me illustrate with this example. Barring any career ending injury or unforeseen calamity a 20 year old player should have about 15 good years of soccer in him (will attain 35 years of age then). Assuming ones true age is 28 then it means he has a small window of opportunity of 7 years to maximize himself. So in reality if you’re 28 years old but with a soccer age of 20 and you do not apply your heart unto wisdom and deceive yourself into thinking you’re 20 with time still on your side you’ll realize in no time that you’re diminishing at a time when you’re supposed to be peaking. No wonder a British sportswriter used this same premise to buttress his point questioning the true age of Odartey Lamptey. He was touted as the next Pele but after just 4-5 years was probably on the level of Ibrahim Labaran (does anyone remember him at all?). So please remain cognizant of your true ages and don’t be fooled by your soccer ages. Train hard, build on your game, exploit the few years of opportunity available to you and posterity will be your judge.

Thirdly, there’s the problem of what I call Low Ambition Syndrome (LAS). Most of the players get appreciably good contracts by Ghanaian standards which enables them to build a house(s), buy a few toys (cars), become content and stay put. Contentment is a virtue but anyone who can legitimately improve and decides otherwise is selfish and unwise. Every player worth his sort should have a goal and vision to play on world class teams and command good contracts through hard work, dedication and a commitment to excellence. It’s okay to start with the Anderlecht’s, Sunderland’s, Lecce’s, Karlsruhe’s etc. but one should be motivated to eventually end up with the Manchester United’s, Barcelona’s, Real Madrid’s, Chelsea’s, AC Milan’s, Bayern Munich’s, Inter Milan’s etc. Even those who are already on my A team list like Michael Essien and Kevin Boateng should still condition and motivate themselves to improve and move to equally good A teams if need be just like happened with Kaka, Ronaldo, Eto etc. There are so many Ghanaians playing professional soccer abroad but way too many of them are on average or sub-standard teams and it remains a conundrum why they’re not improving to merit transfers to top notch clubs. Personally I attribute it mostly to laziness and lack of foresight and sometimes tempted to equate their attitude to that of a student who has the opportunity of moving to say Accra Academy (my alma mater), Achimota, Mfantsipim, Prempeh, Adisadel etc. but prefers to stay at Ebenezer Sec. or Hotcass (hope I haven’t ruffled any feathers here).

Furthermore, please take advantage of mentors and do not refrain from seeking wise counsel. Many players have trod the path you’re threading now whose experiences could be very valuable in avoiding similar pitfalls. Some players get something minimal going for them and then become proud and full of themselves, surround themselves with stooges and live lives with reckless abandon only to realize their folly in no time. There’s a former player I was on the same colts team with who at the time was very respectful, down to earth and always sought wise counsel but immediately he sprung into the limelight he shunned wise counsel, surrounded himself with yes men and people he could lord himself over, and started ‘chasing’ girls without restraint and in no time became awash. Also the current players need to take advantage of the expertise of the former players. I wonder how many players come home and seek the services of say Kofi Abbrey on how to give effective crosses, Polo on how to give crisp passes, Abedi on how to effectively manouvre through defenders etc. For example even though I had given up on playing active soccer at the time I always used to ‘pick the brains’ of Ofei Ansah (may his soul rest in perfect peace) during our Monday Stars games at the Dansoman Complex and will forever cherish the deep insights he gave me. O. Ansah you’re appreciated!!!

Also please invest your money wisely since for most of the players that will be your only credible source of future sustenance. I can understand if players of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s are struggling because they did not realize any appreciable financial gains from their expertise but the players of this decade or generation have no excuse. What most of these boys do is put some few funds into treasury bills, operate some form of transportation business and use the rest to engage in sheer opulence. Diversify your portfolios and where possible let investment or wealth management experts help in that regard, and will really be surprised if someone like Michael Essien isn’t doing that. The houses and cars are fine but do not over indulge in them especially the cars because they’re no investments and get out of vogue in no time. Can anyone picture how Gargo’s ‘Powerful 6’ Suzuki Vitara is looking like today? Also I want to make a passionate appeal to the boys not to allow these ‘gold diggers’ to siphon you of your hard earned money. It really beats my imagination why these boys now think that to solidify their image and enhance their egos they have to go after these ‘high time’ girls. If it’s predicated on love that’s fine but the Almighty God also gave you analyzable brains to read between the lines and make well informed decisions, and so like the sages say a word to the wise is enough.

Last but not the least, empower yourselves through some form of education, acquisition of skills and learning an appreciable level of English which will come handy after your soccer days are over. I watched an interview of one of Ghana’s top players in London on Fox Sports Channel (FSC) in 2008 and the English was godawful and when asked what he will do after retirement retorted ‘I will sleep’. He tried to laugh it off and the interviewer asked him two more times and he gave the same answer. My intent is not to demean anyone but these boys have no excuse with all the money they command not to be able to hire someone to teach them English. When Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets (NBA) came to the States in 2003 he could not even utter one English word or understand any and had to be communicated to through the services of a translator. However, to my amazement in less than 3 years the guy was speaking so fluently and intelligibly in English to the extent that he earned my utter respect and admiration. Why can’t our boys do likewise? Even if for nothing at all please put yourselves in positions to be able to comprehend your own contracts and stop letting the managers/agents cheat you.

PS: Just saw Asamoah Gyan’s music clip with ‘Castro the Destroyer’ on youtube.com and hopefully you can acquire some skills and education to become an accomplished Music Director/Producer/Record Label CEO after your soccer playing days but for now don’t let this distract your attention.



Carl Owusu-Barnes
(Maryland, USA)
Roscoli@hotmail.com