The Black Stars story of retirements and comebacks
The Black Stars story of retirements and comebacks
Posted: 2012-02-22 09:15
In the wake of striker Asamoah Gyan's recent temporary retirement, Kwesi Asomadu looks at some of the famous cases of players who have said goodbye to the Black Stars and returned to lace their boots.
Like his penalty miss, Asamoah Gyan’s indefinite retirement from the Black Stars has taken over the headlines in Ghana. The player believes that the mental trauma and the very public criticism means he has to step aside for the mean time.
He is hoping that during this temporary retirement he could drink from the elixir of mental toughness and boundless confidence, coming comeback stronger than ever.
Whether playing in the UAE is where that elixir can be found is one for football archaeologists to pounder over, but Gyan is not the first Black Star to go down this path, although each one had its own unique storyline. So let’s journey into the past and relive retirements and their comebacks.
KITS-GATE
Samuel Osei Kuffour was a defensive pillar for both the Black Stars and Bayern Munich for well over a decade, but in 2002 in Mali this Pillar was reduced to debris. Kuffour moved to Europe very early in his career and by age 20 he was playing for the Bayern first team.
Playing for Bayern Munich exposed Kuffour to a proper organizational structure and management style that made what he was subjected to when he was international duty look primitive.
Yes, most of Kuffour’s Black Stars career was when the national team was as poorly branded and managed as the present local league. A time where paying of bonuses doubled as a tug-of-war. A time when mingle shirts was worn with any matching shorts.
“But when you compare in terms of organisation, this time, it is far better than our time. Honestly, because sometimes when you finish the game, the Black Star players had to wait at the stadium to get their bonuses or the plane fair is not paid, and things like that” Kuffour said while recollecting those days.
And the issue with kits was what Kuffour challenged during the Nations Cup in Mali. Egos crushed and soon he was packing his bags en route to Munich. The backlash back home was immense. In some quarters people viewed Kuffour challenging FA authorities, represented a player who had forgotten his humble beginnings, believing his wealth and fame made him untouchable.
For a player who had just won the Champions League with Bayern Munich, getting kicked out of your national team during a tournament was clearly the lowest ebb of his career. A premature retirement although not inked was hinted at.
The Black Stars qualified from their group thanks to an Isaac Boakye quick fire brace in the dying minutes of the last group game against Burkina Faso. Then in the quarterfinals a Lawal strike saw the Black Stars lose out to arch rivals Nigeria.
What followed after the tournament was total disaster. The Black Stars had their birth rite taken away from them as they failed to qualify for the 2004 African Nations Cup.
A new FA arrived after that debacle and ushered the Black Stars out of the Stone Age era. A new page in the Kuffour Black Stars career was opened as he played a minimal role in the qualification to its first World Cup.
He went on to play in his last Nations Cup in 2006 and in the World Cup in Germany. His infamous back pass against Italy was his last outing with the Black Stars.
NO GIRLS ALLOWED
In the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Sulley Muntari drilled in a pile-driver against Czech Republic to help give Ghana one of its most famous victories in football. A goal that helped to announce Ghana on the world stage. But in 2004 that moment of absolute ecstasy was in danger of not coming to pass as Muntari retired from International duty.
There was a time when he was the bad boy of Ghana Football. A time when Mario Balotelli would have been tagged the next Sulley Muntari. Times when either Muntari was in the news for receiving a red card at Udinese or throwing a tantrum in the Black Stars camp. His attitude was as fiery as his trademark pile-driver.
In the build-up to the Athens Olympics, Muntari’s acts caught up with him and he was duly expelled from the squad. He broke one of the codes of camp; bringing a girl to camp.
The Black Stars would exit the Olympic Games after the group games. Muntari would go on to announce his international retirement. At age 20, that represented one, if not the, shortest retirement by an active player from international duty.
But his rash decision would haunt him and he apologized, cancelling his decision to retire. Muntari returned to the Black Stars playing a starring role as they qualified for its first World Cup. He has also gone on to represent Ghana in two World Cups in two African Nations Cups.
ESSIEN RETIRES! WHO CARES?
A month after the many highs and lows of the Black Stars’ unforgettable journey in the World Cup in South Africa, Michael Essien announced his temporary retirement from the Black Stars to a chorus of boos from the public.
The impression most Ghanaian fans have of Essien is he cares more about his club side than his country. In 2004 he chose to stay with Lyon instead of play for Ghana at the Athens Olympics – strike 1. A very fishy injury situation meant he was absent from the 2006 African Cup of Nations – strike 2.
So to most Ghanaians taken a temporary break from international duty to concentrate on playing for Chelsea was clearly strike 3.
"I think I will be taking a break. Not retiring, just not playing for time. I have to take the right decision for myself,” Essien said at the time.
For a player who had played about only a quarter of Chelsea’s games for two successive seasons due to lengthy periods out of the game this break was scientifically motivated.
Flying to play on international games on some bad pitches was not the advice any physio was going to give a player returning from two horrific injuries. But science and football are not yet in tandem in Ghana. The way the news reached Ghana also did not win him much sympathy.
The Black Stars had won silver in Africa and reached the quarter finals of the World Cup without him, so the feeling of anger later became “we are doing superb without him so he could as well retire permanently from the Black Stars”.
Essien’s self-imposed break did end as he took to the field to play for Ghana in a qualifier against Congo in June 2011.
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