Ghana star striker Asamoah Gyan may be accustomed to hard tackles from no-nonsense defenders, but he may not have anticipated a high-boot presidential tackle from former Head of State Flt-Lt (Rtd) Jerry John Rawlings on the lawns of Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi, Kenya on 23 March.
The two-time Ghana President told the Sunderland forward he had been waiting for long to get it off his chest the penalty miss against Uruguay at the 2010 World Cup quarter-final clash at Soccer City in South Africa.
Rawlings, who is African Union’s High Representative to Somalia, was in Nairobi on a diplomatic mission, but word reached him the Black Stars were at Kasarani training for an Africa Nations Cup qualifier against Congo.
A perfect opportunity had presented itself and the former Ghanaian strongman timed with military precision where to get his man.
Ghana Football Association vice-president Fred Pappoe invited Rawlings to counsel the young Black Stars.
After seconds of ordering his thoughts and exchanging greetings, interspersed with sayings discernibly from Ghana’s lingua franca, Rawlings set out to sink his teeth on his target.
Black Stars
“Well, I must say you really made humanity happy by the manner you displayed your skill, using your feet. But good as you were, you disappointed me,” said Rawlings with rising intonation capturing the attention of millionaire Black Stars whose jaws ascended to meet the sharp gaze of the retired President.
“You have to endeavour to perform self-examination and self criticism every time so you can perform better in subsequent games.”
As the message sunk in, a military chopper roared past the stadium providing a temporary relief to his subjects as the retired Flight Lieutenant’s interest was drawn away by the noise above.
But he had his subjects at his mercy and soon returned for a bite.
“Where is Asamoah Gyan?” Rawlings asked as a chorus of “there!” drowned the Sunderland man’s answer of “I’m here.”
The Sunderland record signing then waited for the hammer to fall. And it indeed fell.
“You played well, the team played well but you made fundamental mistakes. Penalty taking is pure physics. It is about speed. It is about the velocity of the ball. I know no one likes to be corrected, but we all make mistakes,” Rawlings bellowed, but quickly added that it is good to be corrected, perhaps with knowledge he was addressing big egos.
All the while dead silence had engulfed the group with journalists keen for Rawlings to prove right the opinions they held in the aftermath of Ghana’s 4-2 penalty shoot-out defeat to Uruguay on July 2, last year.
“You made it even worse by standing close to the ball. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
The Black Stars had answered in the affirmative perhaps hoping it would remove the sting from the raging retired President.
“The stadium was dead silent. Waiting. The goalkeeper will always gamble, but you have to reduce his chances by giving the ball the right velocity. As I said it is pure physics. Do you understand?
Another round of “Yes!” followed amid His Excellency’s appreciation — clearly enjoying his chance to roast the millionaires, but without due consideration of two home-based goalkeepers Sammy Adjei (Hearts of Oak, Ghana) Ernest Sowah (Berekum Chelsea, Ghana) and striker Nathaniel Asamoah (Asante Kotoko, Ghana) who probably shared Rawlings’ admonition of Europe-based millionaires.
“And don’t get angry,” said Rawlings. “If I make a mistake I expect people to correct me. I do the same in my home and even when I was President I was always open to criticism, correction. By standing near the ball, the goalkeeper’s chances were at 80 per cent when it has to be 30 per cent. These are some of the fundamental mistakes we should not be making,” said Rawlings, as he surveyed the cringing faces of the players and fleeting look at Serbia coach Goran Stevanovic standing to his far left.
He knew he had bitten a huge chunk of the Black Stars’ egos and eased the pain with joke that: “The big man in Africa doesn’t lie.” And true, you could feel a sense of phew!
Rawlings then drifted into more critical issues extolling the Black Stars and the black race for its role in reducing racism across the globe.
Few people gave a chance to a young Ghana side missing its injured Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien, but began with a 1-0 defeat of Serbia, drew 1-1 with Australia, and lost 1-0 to Germany.
Germany’s 4-1 crushing of Australia meant Ghana went through to the second round where they eliminated USA 2-1, with would-be villain Gyan scoring a brilliant goal in extra-time after Kevin Prince Boateng’s early strike had been cancelled by Landon Donovan from the spot.
Ghana would, however, be eliminated by Uruguay in controversial fashion when Liverpool striker Luis Suarez blocked Dominic Adiyiah’s header with his hands on the stroke of fulltime of extra-time.
Gyan then shaved the crossbar from the penalty despite sending goalkeeper Fernando Muslera the wrong way.
The Black Stars were “to pay the penalty” as most headlines read across the world for Muslera returned to save efforts from Stephen Appiah and Adiyiah, before Sebastian Abreu extinguished hopes of Africans with the decisive spot-kick to send Uruguay through to the semi finals.
Racial prejudice
But Rawlings saw the silver lining in the Black Stars’ display as he asked stars he had just hit at if they knew how much they had contributed to reduction of racism.
“With that performance other races have respected the blacks. Through your feet racial prejudice is crumbling. Those noises you hear in stadiums around Spain have reduced thanks to your exploits that have brought advantages to humanity,” Rawlings thundered.
“America started to take pride in her black people when they started excelling in sports; the likes of Mohammed Ali and many others,” said Rawlings, who was born in Accra on June 22, 1947 to Victoria Agbotui from Dzelukope near Keta and a Scottish chemist, James Ramsey John, then working in the then Gold Coast.
“Internationalisation is taking place. Who ever knew a black person would be elected US President or a woman vying for presidency? It is because of the Amendments 11-27,” Rawlings said as he indulged the footballers in academics.
It did not matter whether they understood anyway. His Excellency had tackled his man-Asamoah Gyan.
Real hard.
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