Kwadwo Asamoah,on Sunday night, marked his 200 appearance for Juventus, in the club's 3-0 win over Bologna and I am happy for the former liberty player, especially after such a long lay off.
Kwadwo has suffered series of injuries in the last two years, Oh how we miss him. Anytime the black stars have a creative spark in the middle of the park, we've gone(we get) to the finals. A critical examples are Abedi Pele in 1992, Kwadwo Asamoah in 2010 and Christian Atsu in 2015. For the purpose of this article, i will focus on Kwadwo Asamoah.
In 2010 ,in Angola,everything good for the black stars went through him and I remember the game against the host like it was yesterday.
The assist to Asamoah Gyan,and oh the game, against the Super eagles in the semi-finals. His presence in the team is important because he doesn't play for him self, but he plays for the team and his aim is to make the striker better.
Christian Atsu also played a similar role in the last Afcon. My pain is not that the player chose club over country,but our collective silence and the lack of public outrage over his decision. I don't think that we've become reasonable all of a sudden, because we have never been when it comes to football and our players.
I remember when Michael Essien announced his self imposed retirement after he suffered two crucial injuries whilst on national team duty, the whole country was up in arms, why not Kwadwo Asamoah? Why the indifference or the player is not as important as some people claim.
REASON The official communication from the FA is that, the player just returned from injury so he should be allowed to fight for his place in the Juventus team. This is just the truth, but the whole truth is that the player is afraid to return because of the practise of "juju" black magic against him in the team. Just imagine if it was captain Asamoah Gyan giving us this story or Dede Ayew choosing Westham over Black Stars,even though these two players are returning from injuries they suffered months ago.
USE OF BLACK MAGIC This has always been known in our football, but the first time it became official is when the former Ghana coach Goran Stevanovic stated in his post-Nations Cup report that the over-reliance on black magic by his players derailed their trophy winning chances. Stevanovic's fourth place finish was considered a failure but the Serbian said in his report there are some factors. "We all need to help in changing some players' mentality about using black power to destroy themselves and also make sure we install discipline and respect for each other",said the coach in the report. To be fair ,Kwadwo has not played any part in Grant's team since he looked over as head coach of the Black Stars back in 2014. However he is fit and playing for his club side and the honest truth is that ,he should be wearing that number 10 ,oh sorry number 20 jersey for the black stars in Gabon, simple. No excuses.
Ohene-Bampoe Brenya @obbampoegh [email protected]