THE CURSE OF THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
There is general excitement among the sporting public in Ghana and by extension Africa, when one of our own signs for an elite premier league team or a top European side. The reason for this excitement is very simple, the idea of seeing them compete with some of the big names in world football week-in-week-out is indeed amazing not only for the public, but even sports journalist.
One of such is Michael Essien’s transfer from Olympic Lyon to Chelsea, for a fee of 24.4 Million pounds in 2004.
However, the emerging dominance of African players in Europe, poses some threat to national team football and competitions like the Africa Nations Cup. In this time of the year every two years, there appears the age old debate about the change in the calendar of the AFCON.
The fight between club and country is ever epic. As teams prepare to announce their final squads, we hear “funny stories” of players pulling out of the tournament due to injuries. Some true, some half true and some complete lies from both players and European teams.
This year has been particularly eventful with 7, yes 7 Cameroon players turning down call-ups to represent their country at the continental football festival to focus on club football, Pathetic. Notable among the 7 players are Liverpool defender Joel Matip and 27 year old Schalke striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.
According to Liverpool’s official website Matip said “it’s not an easy decision but I want to concentrate on Liverpool. I want to be here”, “I want to focus on Liverpool and that’s what I had to decide. I think I took the right decision”.
His coach Jurgen Kloop was understandably happy about the decision saying he had already discussed the matter with Matip weeks ago. These players have been honest at least in telling us they love their clubs more than the Indomitable Lions.
In time past, players will fake injuries just to avoid playing in the Africa Nations Cup, some in comical fashion. Diafra Sakho, the Senegal international comes to mind, the West Ham player pulled out of the 2015 Nations Cup because he was suffering with a back injury and was unable to fly to Equatorial Guinea for the AFCON said West Ham, Only for Sakho to play for West Ham in an FA Cup win 18 days after he withdrew from Senegal’s Africa Cup of Nations squad.
Senegal were furious that Sakho played for West Ham 48 hours after they were knocked out of the competition. The club was later fined 71 thousand pounds and reprimanded by FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee for violating article 5 of Annexe 1 of the Regulations, The player was also sanctioned.
In the case of Michael Essien, it was joy for both player and club as they avoided sanctions from the World governing body. Reason is because, the world saw him being stretchered off the field, after a challenge from West Ham United captain Nigel Reo-Coker in early January 2006, and was sidelined for three weeks.
However, in the court of public opinion, Essien is as guilty as charged. In their eyes, it was all a conspiracy between Essien and Chelsea, masterminded by Jose Mourinho to miss the 2006 AFCON.
To be fair, some players have shown great sense of patriotism, captains of both the Black Stars of Ghana and the Hawks of Togo, Asamoah Gyan and Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor but to mention a few.
Gyan walked away from sealing a deal with English Championship side Reading after the club demanded he skip the Africa Nations Cup, but the club said it’s because he failed a medical.
Adebayor on the other hand, hit out at French club Lyon over the club’s decision not to sign him after pulling out of the deal.
The Ligue 1 club was considering a move for the 32-year-old free agent and Adebayor met with Bruno Genesio, after the coach gave the red light for the club to sign the player only to pull out of the deal because of the veteran forward’s participation in the Africa Nations Cup with Togo.
In addressing the Matip withdrawal, Liverpool manager Kloop indicated that the player had to make this decision himself, it’s not from the club. Really, is this statement true? From the Gyan and Adebayor case we know this statement is false. In some case it even goes beyond the coach, Ex Ghana defender Sammy Kuffour on Robert Marawa show on Metro FM in South Africa revealed German side Bayern Munich offered him 200,000 euros to miss the 2002 AFCON finals.
So the next time you get overly excited about the signing of a Ghanaian player by an European side, please think about the next Africa Nations Cup.
By; Ohene Bampoe-Brenya