Essien class looms large
Sep 04, 2009
COCOA is supposed to be Ghana’s leading export. But, lately, cocoa’s reputation as the leading foreign exchange earner is fast earning a sustained challenge from football.
Sunday
Ghana v Sudan
COCOA is supposed to be Ghana’s leading export. But, lately, cocoa’s reputation as the leading foreign exchange earner is fast earning a sustained challenge from football.
From Michael Essien through Sulley Muntari to Stephen Appiah, football has established Ghana as a hotbed of talent that arouses interest from soccer’s hawk-eyed agents.
Plenty of other Ghanaians earn their living in Europe’s finest leagues but in Ghana, none comes any closer to Essien in the contest for this nation’s affections.
The Chelsea star leapt to national treasure status the moment he inspired the Black Stars to their first-ever World Cup appearance in Germany in 2006.
Till 2006, never having been to world soccer’s most exclusive get-together was a fact tantamount to an unforgivable insult in this football-mad nation.
And now that Ghana stands on the brink of a second successive World Cup qualification, Essien is as close to a patron saint in Accra as any man can ever wish to be.
The midfielder, expected to be the creative director in a make-or-break match against Sudan this weekend, will be in his opponents’ faces as soon as they disembark at Kotoka International Airport.
Just outside the arrivals’ lounge at the airport, Essien, trademark smile in place, stands on a billboard staring down any newcomers.
Essien, on a billboard, is a sight that’s common around Accra; and a sight that illustrates just how high the Black Star’s stock is around this mildly hot, neat city of four million inhabitants.
In Accra, Essien’s endorsement carries a messianic ring to it.
Just a little bit more rise in his cult status and one fears the imposing figure will be telling citizens how many breaths to take per minute of the encounter.
Ghana v Sudan
COCOA is supposed to be Ghana’s leading export. But, lately, cocoa’s reputation as the leading foreign exchange earner is fast earning a sustained challenge from football.
From Michael Essien through Sulley Muntari to Stephen Appiah, football has established Ghana as a hotbed of talent that arouses interest from soccer’s hawk-eyed agents.
Plenty of other Ghanaians earn their living in Europe’s finest leagues but in Ghana, none comes any closer to Essien in the contest for this nation’s affections.
The Chelsea star leapt to national treasure status the moment he inspired the Black Stars to their first-ever World Cup appearance in Germany in 2006.
Till 2006, never having been to world soccer’s most exclusive get-together was a fact tantamount to an unforgivable insult in this football-mad nation.
And now that Ghana stands on the brink of a second successive World Cup qualification, Essien is as close to a patron saint in Accra as any man can ever wish to be.
The midfielder, expected to be the creative director in a make-or-break match against Sudan this weekend, will be in his opponents’ faces as soon as they disembark at Kotoka International Airport.
Just outside the arrivals’ lounge at the airport, Essien, trademark smile in place, stands on a billboard staring down any newcomers.
Essien, on a billboard, is a sight that’s common around Accra; and a sight that illustrates just how high the Black Star’s stock is around this mildly hot, neat city of four million inhabitants.
In Accra, Essien’s endorsement carries a messianic ring to it.
Just a little bit more rise in his cult status and one fears the imposing figure will be telling citizens how many breaths to take per minute of the encounter.