BY GARIBA RAUBIL

PARROT FM,SUNYANI POLYTECHNIC

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A New Year resolution that is not written down is only a dream and a dream is not a goal.

I believe that the goal of the Black Stars and Ghanaian soccer fans in the year 2013 is to land the 2013 African Cup of Nations which has dodged Ghana for more than three decades now and to see Ghana at the 2013 Brazil FIFA Confederations Cup for the first time. Fifteen African nations will be against this goal of Ghana in South Africa.

Ghana has won four Africa Cup of Nations title. Charles Kumi Gyamfi ,a native of the land led Ghana to win three of those titles in GHANA 1963, TUNISIA 1965 and LIBYA 1982. Another Ghanaian coach Fred Osam Duodu had led Ghana to beat Uganda 2-0 in the final match of the 1978 African Cup of Nations hosted by Ghana,where Opoku Afriyie netted twice to win Ghana’s third title. Since then Ghana has failed to conquer Africa with a number of coaches been employed to bring Ghana back on track but that has proved futile. In the quest to win the Coupe d’Afrique again, Ghana has tried several expatriate coaches in the likes of Germans Rudi Gutendorf, Burkhard Ziese, Otto Pfister and Ralf Zumdick, Danish Jørgen E.Larsen, Romanian Peter Gavrilla, Brazillian Ismael Kurtz, Rinus Israel from The Nertherlands, Giussepe Dossena from Italy, Milan Zivadinovic from Yugoslavia, Portuguese Mariano Barreto, Serbians Ratomir Dujkovic, Milovan Rajevac and Goran Stevanovic and Claude Le Roy from France. None of the coaches was able to pass the test and sometimes the Ghanaian football fan wonders if it is Ghana’s destiny not to win the AFCON under foreign coaches. The big questions are “Are local black coaches part of Ghana Black Stars DNA? Why Ghana cannot win the AFCON under expatriate coaches? Is it a foolproof that Kwesi Appiah can win 2013 AFCON because he is a native of the land? These are questions that are unanswered and keep on been asked.

For me, I think it takes sheer teamwork, absolute determination, experience and a bit of talent to win championships and not necessarily having a local coach. As a Ghanaian, I could only hope that Kwesi Appiah becomes the third Ghanaian to win the Coupe d’Afrique for Ghana.

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