This piece is inspired by comments that have been dropped over the social media space since Ghanaian actress, Nikki Samonas, promised the first Black Stars player to score against the Americans last Monday a ‘romantic’ kiss.
According to the actress, that was her way of motivating the players before the match. But there have been varied opinions shared on the ‘promise’.
While many see it as a private person’s way of motivation, others believe that, Nikki’s gesture was only an attention seeking gimmick.
A celebrity lifestyle is not something to joke with anywhere in the world. To live your life with the celebrity tag can be expensive and can bring alongside the publicity, a lot of problems…. and hard work too.
A celebrity needs to stay relevant. That’s why there are always stories about a particular celebrity in the media. This is to help the person in question to stay relevant in the game. When public attention on a celebrity appears to be going down, something drastic needs to be done as soon as possible to prevent the person from getting out of the limelight.
As the saying goes, desperate situations call for desperate measures. In desperate situations like when a celebrity’s popularity is sinking, a desperate measure has to be taken to reverse such a situation.
Let’s not forget that, being in the public domain means you are doing something worth talking about and it helps the person to get some endorsements or deals in different forms. It’s not automatic but in a way, it boosts the person’s chances.
Now some people have questioned the genuineness in Nikki’s promise to the Stars to the extent of her being described as an attention seeker. Some also went as far as calling the whole thing, a piece of beautiful nonsense.
How genuine was the promise? Was it a ploy to stay relevant or to get undeserved attention? I do not know but one thing I know for sure is that, Nikki’s promise has brought some level of attention on her.
Quite glaringly, her name wasn’t included as one of the celebrity ambassadors to Brazil and I reckon in a bid to show that, she is equally patriotic like any other Ghanaian, she made that promise.
“It is unfortunate I couldn’t be at Brazil with the Black Stars to offer my support to them but I promise a very good kiss to the first Ghanaian player who scores against the U.S”, Showbiz quoted Nikki.
After USA match, I’m not going to tell you what you already know concerning what happened during the Group G encounter between Ghana’s Black Stars and their United States counterparts last Monday. We all know that our gallant Stars didn’t live up to expectation. They failed to record a ‘hat trick’ against the Americans.
In the 2006 World Cup which was our maiden participation, Ghana defeated the USA in the group stages. Ghana recorded another famous win against the USA in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
A win last Monday would have been a sweet ‘hat trick’ victory. Well, the outcome of that match left many Ghanaians unhappy.
Since Andre Dede Ayew scored Ghana’s lone goal against the Yankees, by virtue of the promise, he automatically wins the bid to get a ‘romantic’ kiss from Nikki Samonas.
“Friends who are in Brazil called to tell me that the guys were impressed not because I promised them a kiss but I went out of my way to say something like this. They were all happy when they heard my promise” Nikki said on Radio Universe.
A day before the German match, there were reports and a video of her online advising Ghanaians to rally behind the team and pray they beat the Germans who had already trashed Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal 4-0.
She said: “Even though Ghana lost her first match against United States of America, our boys played a wonderful game of which Andre Dede Ayew has earned himself a wonderful kiss.
“Ghanaians, we should not be discouraged but rather rally behind our team not to lose focus and morale. We should motivate and encourage them in their next match against Germany this Saturday.
“I believe our Ghana Black Stars will make it with our motivation, support and prayers.”
Now, none of the Ghana’s Brazil 2014 World Cup ambassadors has been heard making the kind of noise that Nikki Samonas has been making.
So the question on the lips of many is, who is doing the real motivation?
PS: Congratulations to the Black Stars for playing a 2:2 drawn game with the supposedly “German football machine”.