Does Ghana Really Need Essien?

In many ways the first reaction to this title would be "that's a silly question. Of course Ghana needs Michael Essien". That for sure would be our reaction too. But our question really should read something like this "Without Michael Essien, will the wheels really fall off Ghana's World Cup campaign?"


Without a doubt any team in the world today would need Michael Essien... fully fit. However if there is ever a team team that can live without the powerhouse box-to-box midfielder, who is skilled in the defensive arts, but can rip through defences just as easily, and also launch devastating missiles from long distance, that team is Ghana. World-class midfielders seem to come a dime a dozen in Ghana, and indeed most parts of Africa. There are those who have attributed this phenomenom to the popular kick-about football on the streets and sandy pitches of Africa, played with miniature goalposts that hone the dribbling and passing skills required in midfield play.

Whatever the reason, Ghana has a generation of mint fresh midfielders ready to step in for Essien and grind out results. Perhaps all fall short of the lofty standards of the Chelsea ace, but as a unit woven together by the crafty Serbian Milovan Rajevac, they become a formidable bunch to crack as Burkina Faso, Angola, Nigeria and Egypt found out at the Nations Cup in January.

Bloodied in Angola, the trio of Ghana's U-20 World Cup winning side; Agyemang-Badu, Ibrahim and Andre Ayew are ready to go one step further. So too the young, but lavishly talented Udinese midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah who is the latest owner of the famous Number 10 shirt won by Ghana's greats before him like Abedi Pele and Abdul Razak.

There is also Inter Milan's Sulley Muntari, Rosenborg's Anthony Annan 'often hailed as the new Essien', Heart's Laryea Kingston and Portsmouth Kevin Prince-Boateng (if Ghana gets him), who all come in with decent experience.

Agyemang-Badu, who was supreme in Angola in the absence of Essien, has said Essien is indispensable to Ghana: "It will be really sad if he is not able to make it," Badu told Kickoffghana.com. "There is time between now and the World Cup and we have to hope and pray he is available to play his part because he is a world-class player who brings so much to the team."

"The players in the side want him there because they know how well things go when he is in the side. As younger ones he does not just give inspiration, he is a great person to learn from."

Milo too has insisted that he needs his experienced players back, after the heroics of Angola.

We accept that, but if 'Bison' does not recover in time for the World Cup are we going to lose sleep for Milovan Rajevac or the Ghanaian fans? No. Why should we, when waiting in the wings are a collection of little 'Bisons'?

credit: africaplays.

Hope Steps Up for Appiah

Having shown charming skill and sleek football artistry at the last mundail, Appiah's slow walk up to the pitch is a welcome good for Ghana at a time when most of our key players have seen the sick bench. At least its a white cloud in the midst of seeming failure at the World Cup.

A real sigh of relief for the Capitano.

Ghana fans are hopeful that their skipper Stephen Appiah will make the World Cup team after as he made the bench of his new club Bologna over the weekend.


The midfielder's club career has virtually been on life support following a knee injury that has kept him out of competitive club football for about two years.


In an uncanny future meets the past scenario, Appiah watched from the bench as his side drew 1:1 against Udinese, featuring the young Ghanaian midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah who has taken up Appiah's role in the Black Stars.



The 'Tornado' who led Ghana to its first ever World Cup in 2006 is a favourite of Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac and many Ghanaian fans.


Appiah recently expressed interest in representing Ghana at the World Cup saying: "I am very determined to break into the first team,' he told Soccer Week. 'This is an opportunity I wouldn't want to miss. Ask 10 out of 11 players and they will tell you how important the World Cup or any major tournament is to their career."

Tales of the Boateng Brothers'

On June 23 at Soccer City, two brothers could create World Cup history. Fitness and team selection permitting, Hamburg defender Jerome Boateng will run out for Germany. Fitness, bureaucracy and temperament permitting, his eccentric half-brother Kevin-Prince Boateng will play for Ghana.

Half-brothers Jerome and Kevin-Prince Boateng grew up in Berlin as the sons of an African immigrant.

They could end up playing on opposite sides at the World Cup in a few weeks, with one playing for Germany and the other for Ghana.

Jerome Boateng has four tattoos. One of them, on his right forearm, consists of the word “Agyenim” and runs all the way from just above his wrist to his elbow. It is his middle name and means “the Great One” in Ashanti-Twi, the language of his father, who comes from Ghana. The 21-year old, whose mother is from Berlin, is a defender for the German national soccer team.

Jerome has never been to Ghana, and yet he somehow feels connected to the African country, though he can’t quite explain why. He likes to listen to music from Ghana, because it sounds cheerful, and he has a few Ghanaian friends. “But it was clear to me early on that I only wanted to play for Germany.”

Kevin-Prince Boateng has 13 tattoos. One of them, on his right upper arm, depicts a skull and four aces, with the words “The World Is Yours” in English.

Kevin-Prince is Jerome’s half-brother. They have the same father. He too is a professional football player, but he prefers music by German rapper Bushido, whose songs are about whores and anal sex. His mother’s name is Christine, and through her he is related to legendary football player Helmut Rahn. Known as “The Boss,” Kevin-Prince’s great-uncle scored the winning goal for Germany in the final of the 1954 World Cup.

‘Proud to Be African’

Like Jerome, Kevin-Prince was born in Berlin. Most of what he knows about Ghana, his father’s country, comes from stories he has heard. Nevertheless, he says: “I’m proud to be an African.”

The 23-year-old is hoping to play for the Black Stars, Ghana’s national team. He has applied for a Ghanaian passport, which is only a formality at this point. The Ghana Football Association is depending on him to be a member of its team when it heads to South Africa for the World Cup in June.

As youngsters the half-brothers played for the same club, Hertha BSC, both as amateurs and then professionals. They left the club three years ago. Jerome now plays for Hamburg SV, though he looks set to move to an English club next season, while Kevin-Prince plays for Portsmouth, in England’s Premier League.

Their paths could cross again as soon as June 23, when Germany is set to play Ghana at the World Cup, in Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium. It is the last match in Group D, and it is highly likely that it will end up being a family duel, with one brother, Kevin-Prince, playing as an attacking midfielder for Ghana and the other, Jerome, as a defender for Germany.

Like many children of immigrants, Jerome and Kevin-Prince Boateng have a diffuse relationship to their nationality and roots, with two hearts beating in their chests. When it comes to playing for the national team, however, they can only opt for one country.

Kevin-Prince walks through the lobby of the Hilton Hotel in Southampton, wearing baggy jeans and clunky sneakers. He has the broad shoulders of a professional footballer.

Most Promising New Player

Many observers had predicted that he would end up on the German team eventually. Kevin-Prince Boateng had played 41 times for the German Football Association’s junior teams. In July 2005, he scored the “goal of the month” when he hammered the ball into the net from the half-way line during a game for the U19 national team. In 2006, a jury selected him as the most promising new player of the year. But then, last summer, he announced that he would only play for Ghana from then on. It was a surprising decision, but he had made up his mind.

Kevin-Prince looks around the lobby, searching for his manager. A short man from Cologne, with shoulder-length hair and carrying a briefcase, the manager is standing in the corner near a television set. He backpacked through India in his younger days. “I lived on the streets for a year,” he says. “That’s where you learn humility.”

The two men sit down in armchairs. Kevin-Prince pulls his mobile phone from his jacket pocket and stares absent-mindedly at the screen. His manager says: “If Ghana wins the World Cup, the whole continent will be on fire. And Kevin will be a star.” That’s the plan.

Jerome Boateng is sitting at a table next to the window at Salentino’s, an Italian restaurant in Hamburg’s Winterhude neighborhood. It’s getting dark outside as rain pelts against the windowpane. He smells of cologne, but not overpoweringly, and he has a diamond stud in each ear. He orders an arugula salad and a bottle of mineral water. For a national player, Jerome Boateng is thinner than one would expect. He speaks quietly and seems almost shy. “I never thought of playing for Ghana,” he says.

Why not?

“Because it doesn’t make any sense. Germany is my home. I like the people here, and the mentality,” he says. “The fact that Kevin made a different choice is his business. But he’s my half-brother, and I’m happy for him.”

‘Why Should You Make It?’

Jerome grew up in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf neighborhood, in a three-room apartment not far from the Kurfürstendamm, West Berlin’s main shopping boulevard. His father moved out when Jerome was five. His mother, Martina, was a flight attendant for British Airways, and she now works for Lufthansa.

Martina Boateng comes to the restaurant straight from the dentist, where she has just had a molar pulled. Her upper jaw is still numb. She orders a cup of coffee, although she is not supposed to drink anything. Jerome’s mother says that she never wanted her son to become a football player. She wanted him to learn something worthwhile, something with a future. “I used to annoy him by asking: Why should you, of all people, make it as a professional?”

She was also opposed to his attending Hertha BSC’s youth academy, because she has a low opinion of comprehensive schools. Nevertheless, Jerome attended the Poelchau secondary school, an “elite sports school,” until the 10th grade. He didn’t do well in biology, physics and mathematics, but good grades were important to his mother.

Martina Boateng carefully sips her coffee. The anesthetic hasn’t worn off yet. “At the time, I didn’t recognize how determined Jerome was. Today I have to say: Kudos!”

Kevin-Prince, his half-brother, visited often when they were growing up. Jerome went to the movies with him, and they played table tennis or basketball together. But most of the time they played football. “Kevin was Jerome’s idol,” says Martina Boateng. She rolls her eyes, as if it were something she doesn’t like to think about. “I really like Kevin. He’s funny, a clown. He loves to make people laugh. But he can’t accept a subordinate role, he has a big mouth and he doesn’t obey the rules. That always comes through.” When the boys were younger, she feared that Kevin would be a bad influence on her son.

For a time, Jerome adopted a sort of affected immigrant dialect, speaking in rudimentary sentences without articles. But that was the extent of his rebelliousness. Today Jerome is the epitome of the modern professional athlete. He doesn’t drink and he doesn’t smoke. He likes to spend time on his Playstation. His mother says: “Jerome figured out on his own that all the way Kevin acts isn’t necessarily all that great.”

The half-brothers’ different personalities are reflected in their playing styles. Jerome is a disciplined defender, keeping track of things and remaining calm when on the ball. Kevin-Prince can control and finish, but his actions are more physical, almost angry. Last year he kicked a player on the opposing team in the temple. The wound had to be sewed up with seven stitches.

Martina Boateng puts on her coat. On the way out, she says that she had expected that Jerome would play for Germany. She prefers not to comment on Kevin-Prince’s decision to play for Ghana. All she says is: “Kevin comes from Wedding. I admire him for having fought his way out of there.”

Wedding is a poor Berlin neighborhood where foreigners make up a third of the residents. The unemployment rate is above 15 percent, 15,000 crimes are recorded every year, and the number of welfare recipients is high.

Kevin-Prince was one-and-a-half when his father left the family home. His mother played football with the second-tier team Meteor 06 and worked long hours in a cookie factory. She eventually stopped working and went on welfare to take care of her children, two boys and three girls. Today she works as a geriatric nurse.

‘I Was a Bad Role Model’

A man walks through the drizzle wearing a parka, the hood pulled down, half-covering his face. “Let’s walk a little,” he says. George Boateng is Kevin-Prince’s older brother and Jerome’s other half-brother. He takes us to the back room of a café. The 27-year-old is married to a Turkish Kurd and they have two children. He was a gifted football player when he was younger, but he destroyed his own career.

He was the terror of the streets as a teenager. “I got into a lot of trouble. Fights, probation. I had a short fuse, and I was a bad role model for Kevin. He can thank me for his reputation.” He says that he calmed down after meeting his wife. “I haven’t even parked illegally in 10 years.”

Three years ago, however, he and his brother did try to attack then Hertha coach Falko Götz. The coach had told a journalist that he had once been to Kevin-Prince’s house. “He has a lot of siblings, all from different fathers,” Götz said. George Boateng leans forward. Götz isn’t exactly a hero himself, he says. Slot machines flash behind him and the air smells of stale cigarette smoke.

When asked about his brother’s affairs, he sits up straight again. “I’m the last one to claim that Kevin is an angel. But he’s a good person. I’m not. I’m aggressive. I told him not to become like me.” He doesn’t want to talk about it anymore, he says.

He prefers to talk about Jerome, his half-brother. “Jerome is my haven. Everyone calms down when he walks into the room. Kevin is ambitious. Jerome is a perfectionist. He lives for success.”

George is Jerome’s harshest critic and his biggest fan. They speak on the telephone every day, discussing the last training session and analyzing moves. “Jerome is like a sponge. He absorbs everything.” The two most important things in their lives are football and family — in that order. Occasionally they talk about their father.

Prince Boateng is waiting in a pub on the Adenauerplatz square in western Berlin. He sits at the bar, wearing an elegant jacket, two bracelets and three rings. A scar on his cheek identifies him as a member of the Aduana tribe.

Football Pitches Like Cages

In 1981, he left Sunyani, a city in western Ghana, and went to Germany by way of Hungary. He wanted to study business administration, but nothing came of it. There was too much paperwork involved. Instead, he scraped by as a waiter and disc jockey, later selling Italian fashion and occasionally working as a model.

He told his sons a lot about life in Africa. His parents were cacao and coffee farmers. His youngest brother played for the Ghanaian national football team. Boateng himself made it only as far as a local club in Berlin, the Reinickendorfer Füchse.

Prince Boateng travels to Ghana twice a year. He is currently having a house built in the capital Accra, and it is almost finished. The house is for his children, so that they can stay there if they choose to accompany him. The African side of Jerome and Kevin-Prince, he says, is their suppleness, their looseness. “Both of them are great dancers.”

And what’s German about them?

He thinks for a moment. “Jerome is punctual and reliable, which is something you can’t really say about Kevin.”

It was always important to him that his children spent as much time together as possible. He coached both of them when they were still little boys. Sometimes they were allowed to play the ball with their left feet only, and sometimes only with their right feet. Sometimes they practiced free kicks and sometimes headers. His sons learned how to run, dribble and score goals on football pitches that looked like cages, surrounded by tall metal fences. Kevin would flick the ball with his heel over his head, dropping it to his foot — wearing rubber boots.

Jerome joined Tennis Borussia Berlin, where he scored five goals in his first game. In 2002, he switched to Hertha, where Kevin-Prince was already playing. Some of their coaches felt that they were the most talented players to have ever played for the club.

Jerome debuted with the German national team last October, when he was part of the first 11 in a deciding World Cup qualifying match in Russia. His father watched the match on television in Jerome’s apartment, “with tears in my eyes,” as he says. Shortly before the break, Jerome was shown a yellow card because of a foul on the edge of the penalty box. “The ref didn’t have to do that,” says the father. In the 69th minute, Jerome brought down a Russian player and was shown a yellow and then a red card.

“He sacrificed himself for Germany,” says Prince Boateng. It isn’t meant to sound vain, but apologetic. “He started running a little too late, and his only option was to commit a foul, or else the Russian would have run toward the goal alone. It broke my heart to see him sent off.”

He says he lost contact with Kevin-Prince when his son went to England three years ago. Kevin-Prince spent a lot of time in nightclubs and going to parties. He bought three cars on a single day, a Lamborghini, a Hummer and a Cadillac Oldtimer. He also bought a new wardrobe: 160 pairs of shoes, 200 hats and 20 leather jackets.

Part 3: A Score to Settle with Germany?

“The boy needed help, but he didn’t let anyone near him,” says the father. He tried to reach his son by calling him and sending him text messages, but “Kevin never answered.” He seems distracted for a moment, as if he were re-examining everything in his mind.

He only learned Kevin-Prince would be playing for Ghana when he read it in the paper that. He says that he would have been pleased if his son had told him himself. They have been back in touch since December, thanks to the efforts of his daughter-in-law. The father and son had a long talk that lasted from 9 p.m. until 4 a.m. Prince Boateng says when Germany plays Ghana at the World Cup, “I won’t root for either side. The better team should win.”

How does he feel about the fact that Kevin-Prince plans to play for his native country? “I accept it. I support him completely. The German Football Association made him feel that he was no longer needed.”

He talks about the events of last May. Before the U21 European championship in Sweden, the team went to a training camp on Tegernsee, a lake near Munich. One player still had to be eliminated. The decision was up to the team council. One of the players who was there, but doesn’t want to be identified, says: “Kevin was picked because he had been late for meetings several times. The idea was: Someone who’s that unreliable jeopardizes the entire project. If you want to win the title, you can’t have anyone stepping out of line. Besides, he was injured.”

‘A Lack of Discipline and Egotism’

When Kevin-Prince found out, he burst into tears. His half-brother tried to console him. Germany won the championship, and Jerome excelled.

Matthias Sammer, the sports director of the German Football Association, puts it this way: “A lack of discipline and egotism can be discerned in Kevin-Prince. When it comes to his athletic and mental constitution, Jerome is the stronger player.” In other words one brother is a good fit for Germany, while the other is not.

Kevin-Prince’s manager is sitting in the hotel lobby in Southampton, with his briefcase next to his chair. He says that Kevin-Prince will succeed, one way or the other. “Kevin is also a good singer. Maybe he’ll record a record soon.”

We’d like to ask Kevin-Prince why he wants to play for Ghana, and we’d like to talk to him about identity. But nothing is free. “What can you offer Mr. Boateng?” the manager asks.

Not money, at any rate.

The manager thinks for a moment. Then he says that we’d have to sign an agreement stating that he would have to read and approve the entire text before it could be published. “I have to protect Mr. Boateng.”

There is no interview.

It seems that one of the reasons Kevin-Prince Boateng decided to play for Ghana’s national team was because he still has a score to settle with Germany, even if he denies it. Jerome Boateng is playing for Germany, because it seems logical to him. In his case, reason is the motivating factor.

At the Italian restaurant in Hamburg, Jerome looks out the window at the rain. What would he do on June 23 if his brother were running toward the goal with the ball at his feet, and he were the last man who could prevent him from getting there?

Jerome reflects for a moment. A smile darts across his face. “First I would try to take the ball away from him. Totally fair.” But if it came to it, then he’d bring him down.

credit: Maik Grossekathöfer

Boakye- A new African star is born.

Ghanaian teenage sensation Richmond Yiadom Boakye got a window of opportunity on Saturday when he replaced Honduran striker David Suazo after just 12 minutes in a Serie A game between his club Genoa and Livorno.


By the time the referee blew the final whistle the youngster had widened the window to a gaping door with a spectacular performance that culminated in his first ever Serie A goal at the first time of asking.


The 51st minute strike got Genoa a share of the points, and left the 17-year old dreaming of even bigger conquests.


"My dream is to play, work hard and be a great player. Everytime I watch football, I see Drogba, Rooney. I also think I can be great and even more greater" Boakye is quoted as saying by Ghanasoccernet.com.


Described as possessing a deadly agility and pace on and off the ball, combined with superb technical skills, he became the third youngest scorer in the Serie A of all time.



Even more fearsome is that Boakye is still developing physically. There is little doubt about his potential, for which he is respected at Genoa, even more so than fellow countryman Isaac Cofie, who is also a Genoa player.


His senior league debut had a touch of good fortune on the surface, but it was really a result of consistently good performances in the Primavera for Genoa.


"I was playing in the second team, things were go and I was scoring goals so the strikers one of them got hurt and the first team coach called me and I sat on the bench against Siena but I didnt play," the youngster said.


"This time around I was called again-Immediately our striker got hurt so I was the only one sitting down who was a striker and the coach called me and I entered and by God's Grace I scored a beautiful goal.

credit: bit pieces by Africaplays.

Milovan’s South African Nightmare -the Serbian’s head scratches over strikers!

The striker’s job in soccer is so inimitable an art because it's the only position in which players are encouraged to take risks, be greedy, and think attack almost always. It just might not be about the glory and goals but it entails long runs, moving the ball with grit, thinking swiftly and taking a bit of a battering from opposition defenders. There is a set of unique skills - intangibles - that a striker must possess in order to be the finest at his position. This is what suggests that Milovan Rajevac, come May when he assembles his cohorts, would have sleepless nights about his striking options.

Here, Isaac Koufie-Amartey looks at the chaps who must show untainted charm, awesome guts and pure charisma as the right strikers to be at the mundial.

Asamoah Gyan used to be the man with the attack scour through, but the 24-year old seemed to have finished his bullets in Ghana's impressive run to the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. His fertile scoring rate for the Black Stars coupled with his extraordinary strike rate at Rennes in the French Ligue One makes him a plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face choice on Milo’s pages but that hasn’t left him without criticisms. He’s come under the lenses of critics who augur that “he is not a consistent striker and tends to spurn beseeching chances”. His partner Matthew Amoah's patchy fire for NAC Breda in the Eredivisie has all, but ceased, after just one strike post-Angola. He has history and experience behind him even though he has lost touch with the local fan base.

Another striker of worth, Prince Tagoe is back for Hoffenheim, after his harms with the German club. He is looking distinctly sharp, but is still not a serial scorer in the pattern of a World Cup dangerman yet. He has coughed up goals, proved some critics who doubted his soccer artistry at certain crucial moments wrong and shown he hasn’t lost a jot of his goal poaching abilities but it’s how well he manages a 90-minute performance in the Bundesliga that would be the core factor. A strong case he makes for South Africa! Quincy Owusu-Abeyie has shown glimpses of brilliance that once made him a fan’s favourite during his stint with North London-side Arsenal. He has brought some living in a Portsmouth side that looked a pale shadow of the team that won the FA Cup in 2008. Another admirable addition you might say!

The new-fangled striker’s brigade led by Dominic Adiyiah and Ransford Osei are still in the trenches, with little expected from them for a while to come, it seems. The former only recently emerged the world’s most valuable performer and goal king in the Under-20 World Cup in Egypt and the latter winning both accolades at the Under-20 African Cup in Rwanda. They’ve both shown bottle, brilliance and a world-class partnership that’s now the covet of many soccer fans.

Petrojet’s Eric Bekoe has seen some ill luck with Rajevac’s selection mill. Often maligned, he is a chap who counts being top scorer in the CAF Confederations Cup as one of his personal achievements and glory, is technically sound, has good pace, dribbling skills and strength and more importantly, has been a sharp shooter all season in the Egyptian League. It’s left to see if he makes it into the squad in May. A one-time fan’s favourite, Junior Agogo now does not even get a look-in for a 23 man squad with others quick to say “for one wrong move to Zamalek”. Keeping up good performances for Appollon Limassol in the Cyprus Super League could well see a return for the former Nottingham Forest man.

Who earns Milo’s calling rights? Your guess for the goose is as good as mine for the gander.

Pure Nationalism or Selfish Opportunism?

The World Cup- arguably the greatest theatre of the game- has a colonnade of debates surrounding its neck like an albatross when its date draws close. The discussions and debates, which already are raging on with a few months to go, have players switching nationality as one of its loudest cries. The issue has hit elevated heights on the pages of newspapers, been on the mouthing radars of sports connoisseurs and to a larger picture caused a chit-chat on the literal liaison between the Ghana Football Association and FIFA. The question of chauvinism or opportunism, on a player’s intent to switch countries, has come under the limelight yet again this week for World Cup reasons.
Here, Africa Sports’ Isaac Koufie-Amartey looks at the infamous cases of Portsmouth’s Kevin-Boateng and Adam Kwarasey, the former Norwegian Under-21 goalie who, for want of switch of nationalities, have become talked-about items.
On the surface, only 32 nations would be represented at the FIFA World Cup mundial in South Africa, bringing with them their swarming fans, their raucous chants, their beautiful colours and their indigenous rhythms to liven up the streets of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Soweto and too many a city. But in a world where borders have less and a lesser amount of significance and people move around more without stinting than ever, this is by no means the whole story. A nippy scratch of the surface reveals a veritable mélange of nationalities and backgrounds at the finals. Ghana being one large inclusion!
Just another admirable addition to the Black Stars over-flowing abundance in midfield won’t hurt if that lad had shown promise and the muscles, vigor and affirmative ego to play at the top level. Even if it means backing on the heels of Sepp Blatter for months to sign the dotted lines of paperwork geared to see a certain Boateng pull on a Black Star shirt! Kevin-Prince Boateng has pulled up some stirring, heartening performances for a Portsmouth side that looks certain to have a bite of a Championship cherry next season. He’s proved his “ghetto” upbringing looks the exact opposite of his unsurpassed soccer skill and a passion and zeal to crack up standing ovation-like outings. Aside this show of promise and looking a fine count for team selection, his involvement in the national team set-up has taken a plunge. He would bend his knees, a lot would suggest, having his files signed, stamped and given clearance to feature for his new “countryside”. But that doesn’t sound cheap a talk! And that hasn’t left him of criticisms as well.
The playmaker almost certainly innate his talent: talk of a Ghanaian touch, his uncle was a Ghanaian international, and his grandfather is a cousin of legendary Germany star Helmut Rahn, scorer of the winning goal in the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final. Talk of talent, Boateng boasts exceptional ability, refined technique and a range of ball-juggling tricks. His skill and pace are complemented by advanced tactical awareness and a powerful physique. But all of these show of class doesn’t become a Ghanaian reality if a few situations stalls and stay the same.
Keeping clean sheets have somewhat looked the bane and blight of the Black Stars. A goalkeeper, to put a challenge on the justified first team place for Wigan’s Richard Kingston, would be welcomed in purely footballing terms. Starring for Stromgodset in the Norwegian top flight league, Adam Kwarasey, who’s played for the Under-21 side of his adopted country, has also seen stiff situations in his quest to play for Ghana. At 6ft 4in, Kwarasey is literally head and shoulders above Black Stars regulars Richard Kingston and Philemon McCarthy, who average 5ft 8in. He could well prove a proficient assistant for Kingston and just maybe pick up that solo slot to man the posts.
One issue that’s been stuck on the fronts of these two players is whether they coming with warm, earnest interests or with egotistic reasons. Kevin-Prince has been spat on with accusations that he is only an opportunist as he spurned the chance of playing for Ghana at the FIFA World Cup in Ghana waiting on a call-up by the German national team. Kwarasey also has had his share of the spoils by hands accusing him of not opening up to the Black Stars cause a long while ago and only doing so at this time for selfish reason.
Is their new theme-song to play for Ghana because of higher chances of playing at the championship in South Africa or a desire to share in the passion of a certain 23-million inhabitants? It’s an issue that never seems to be far away, and never fails to polarize public opinion. Your guess is worth an ear!

Africa's World Cup Coaching Chaos

The World Cup kicks off a short time from now, but even shorter is the time it will take the coaches of Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire, to prepare their teams for the event.

These two coaches Sven-Goran Eriksson and Lars Lagerback, are yet to see a full squad of their players ever, and will only succeed in doing so about a month to the massive tournament that pitches the world's best teams against each other.

Of the other four representatives; Ghana, South Africa, Algeria and Cameroon, only one has had their coach for longer than three years, and even then, only just. Shocking, when you consider that conventional wisdom says you need about four years to build a globally competitive squad.

In Africa coaches get fired whenever they fail to get immediate results, with little respects for contracts. It is a phenomenon that leaves very little room for mistakes, and consequently, experimentation that fosters real growth.

It is the reason why Africa is heading to the World Cup with teams that are almost certain to perform well below their potential?

South Africa
Bafana Bafana has a young and developing squad that has spent relatively little time with coach Carlos Perreira. The Brazilian rejoined the side for a second stint in October 2009, just eight months to the World Cup. His attempts at building a top squad have been largely without key Europe-based players like Aaron Mokoena, Steven Pieanaar and Kagisho Dikgacoi. When the foreign legion returns in May, they'll alter the shape of Bafana Bafana, and could put a reverse spin on Parreira's efforts so far. Unfortunately since he has never tested the team in a major tournament, the world's biggest football event becomes his trial ground.

Cameroon
The Indomitable Lions appointed maverick Paul Le Guen as coach in July 2009. The Frenchman barely had time to get introduced to the team before shepherding them to World Cup qualifiers against Gabon, Togo and Morocco. From the bottom of the group, the resilient Lions pulled off a mini miracle to grab the group's ticket to South Africa. However anyone who thought Le Guen had the magic wand quickly had a change of heart in Angola, where they struggled to a deserved quarter-final exit. Le Guen has less than a month to fix the obvious leaks, and would need much more than a mini miracle to survive.

Ghana
Ghana's Milovan Rajevac was appointed two years ago. After taking the Black Stars to the final of the 2009 Championship of African Nations [CHAN]; through the World Cup qualifiers; and the Africa Cup of Nations, he seems as prepared as two years can allow him. His experience with the Stars showed in Angola, where he took a team missing eight first team members, and parading 11 debutants to final. Yet after just two years on the job any result less than a quarter-final place in South Africa, would likely lead to calls for his sack.

Nigeria
Amodu Shuaibu was still experimenting with his Super Eagles team in Angola after close to two years on the job. He was sacked despite winning bronze, and Lars Lagerback employed. Nigeria needs to build a competitive squad from the embers of an aging set of players and an untested field of young talents, within two months. The team is arguably the rawest of the lot, and as with many things Nigerian, has the grandest target. Lagerback, has a ludicrous semi-final target.

Cote d'Ivoire
That the Ivorians fired Vahid Halilhodzic, who lost just once in 24 games, shows how jaundiced coaching in Africa can be. Eriksson was appointed to replace him on Sunday, and I am certain the Ivorian federation has its eyes on the big prize. At least unlike Nigeria, the Swede will be spoiled for choice as he has a squad of world-class players, who have been together for many years, at his disposal. Eriksson though cannot speak French, but has to block the team's leaks and fire up the squad mentally [a missing ingredient in the Angola squad] all in two short months. He is expected to achieve what he couldn't do with England with whom he had much more time, money and infrastructure. Am I a pessimist?

Algeria
Algeria coach Rabah Saadane is something of a Methuselah by African standards. He has been in charge since 2007, but clearly Angola showed there was so much work left to do on the Desert Foxes. After just one major championship he is expected to go into South Africa 2010 and deliver the kind of result that would make Egypt envious.

This all paints a damning picture for Africa at the World Cup, but like most Africans I am optimistic that 'something will happen,' and we will have one or two surprise teams. I really wish that will be the case, but it is a wish built more on happenstance than preparedness.

However my head tells me that the continent's representatives will not achieve that result that comes from meticulous planning, punishing preparations and yes, a bit of luck. That result that comes from 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration, that result that proclaims you the champions of the world.

Only the best prepared teams are lucky enough to win that one.

credit: africaplays

John Painstil makes comeback

John Paintsil will play again for the first time since December when he steps out for Fulham's reserves against Wolves on Wednesday night.

The Ghana right back has been out for three months after damaging his knee in an English Premier League game against Chelsea that ruled him out of the 2010 Nations Cup.

But the player says he is now ready again and is thrilled with that.

“I have been training with the senior side and it's now time for me to feature in a match,” Paintsil told the GFA's official newspaper.

“It's been a long way but the most i important thing is that I am almost back. I just can't wait to contribute especially towards the end of the season and then we can think about the World Cup.”

His return will be music to the ears of Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac who has stressed many times that the experience of players like Paintsil will be priceless at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

credit: ghana soccernet