{"id":418331,"date":"2017-09-14T14:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T14:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/09\/14\/muntari-pushed-me-to-miss-universe-ghana-menaye\/"},"modified":"2017-09-14T14:00:30","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T14:00:30","slug":"muntari-pushed-me-to-miss-universe-ghana-menaye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/14\/muntari-pushed-me-to-miss-universe-ghana-menaye\/","title":{"rendered":"Muntari pushed me to Miss Universe Ghana \u2014 Menaye"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">Entertainment of Thursday, 14 September 2017<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>Graphic.com.gh <\/p>\n<p>2017-09-14<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/12144518.295.jpg\" alt=\"Muntari Wife\" title=\"Muntari Wife\" width=\"295\" height=\"200\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Muntari and his family<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=149916385179598\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=149916385179598\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/1505397630_794_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\">The popular saying goes like \u201cbehind every successful man is a woman\u201d but the script is the other way around for Menaye Donkor-Muntari whose husband, footballer, Sulley Muntari was the driving force behind her taking charge of the Miss Universe Ghana franchise.<\/p>\n<p>Organisers of this year\u2019s Miss Universe Ghana, MALZ Promotions, have been praised for the excellent event they put up, which was also pleasantly scandal free and most of the credit is going to Menaye, for taking up the challenge. Perhaps though, some of the credit should be reserved for Sulley.<\/p>\n<p>She tells Graphic Showbiz, \u201cSulley was actually the one who pushed me to take up the franchise which had been dormant for about two to three years. He said, \u2018Menaye, I don\u2019t see anyone doing this other than you, so go for it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>With that vote of confidence, Menaye who is a former Miss Universe (2004), started the process to acquire it. Using the good relationship she had with the Miss Universe organisation as a buffer, she got in touch and after a meeting or two in New York, the franchise was hers.<\/p>\n<p>That support from her husband is not one sided though as Menaye has also been supportive of Sulley throughout his career and many club changes. \u201cWe are there for each other. I go to most of his games and support other things he does and he also does same for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After acquiring the rights, the next stage was how to conduct the pageant to ensure it was given the shine it needed. \u201cMy team and I had two months to plan everything. We had some options to consider; one was whether to handpick a queen and the other was to go through a process, like the whole nine yards and select the best candidate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The investment into this second option was big but she is happy at how everything turned out. For a first timer, one would have expected a lot of challenges but it was done with a great deal of ease and as Miss Universe Ghana 2017, Ruth Quashie puts it, it was near perfect.<\/p>\n<p>Menaye said the challenge was mainly with proving herself. \u201cPeople were watching to see what the new directorship had to offer and I needed to prove it was not all talk,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n<p>Taking up this new role means she will have to spend a lot of time shuttling between Ghana and her husband\u2019s base in Italy but it\u2019s nothing new as she has been making frequent trips to Ghana to get raw materials for her skin care line which she sells abroad. She has plans to launch an affordable luxury line in Ghana soon.<\/p>\n<p>On whether this won\u2019t be too much for her son, Jamal, Menaye says no. \u201cHe is used to travelling. I started travelling with him when he was four months old.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said laughingly, \u201che knows mommy needs to work. I think he understands because when I was pregnant with him, I was working and I used to talk to him about work. I think every pregnant woman needs to communicate with her unborn child, it really helps when they are born. Being a mother has brought my life full circle and I love that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Next year, the Miss Universe Ghana brand is hoping to go big. MALZ Promotions owned by Menaye hopes to work with a bigger budget and make tourism a key focus. They hope to partner with the Ministry of Tourism and other key stakeholders to market the country\u2019s tourist sites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany Ghanaians do not know their own country well. I mean foreigners seem to know the country better than we do. We will visit the regions and package the sights beautifully,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n<p>They are currently working on grooming the new queen, Ruth Quashie for the global Miss Universe pageant slated for November.<\/p>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 65 updated by: -1 --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Start of html generated by this->footer() -->\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Entertainment of Thursday, 14 September 2017 Source: Graphic.com.gh 2017-09-14 Muntari and his family &#13; The popular saying goes like \u201cbehind every successful man is a woman\u201d but the script is the other way around for Menaye Donkor-Muntari whose husband, footballer, Sulley Muntari was the driving force behind her taking charge of the Miss Universe Ghana [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Muntari pushed me to Miss Universe Ghana \u2014 Menaye - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/14\/muntari-pushed-me-to-miss-universe-ghana-menaye\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Muntari pushed me to Miss Universe Ghana \u2014 Menaye - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Entertainment of Thursday, 14 September 2017 Source: Graphic.com.gh 2017-09-14 Muntari and his family &#013; 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