Following Senegal’s victory at the 2021 African Cup of Nations, Ghanaians flooded social media with praise for Aliou Cisse, the country’s indigene who won its first AFCON trophy
In that tournament, Ghana was eliminated after “shockingly” losing to Comoros on match day 3.
What followed was a resounding call from soccer fans, football commentators, and pundits for the Black Stars to be handed to a Ghanaian coach.
Bizarrely, barely 8 months into his reign as head coach of the national team, we are calling for Otto Addo to be sacked.
Why can’t we learn the right lessons?
We wish and hope for success like that of “the Lions of Teranga,” yet we fail to recognise the patience the Senegalese Football Federation and the entire country have had for Aliou.
We have forgotten that with him as head coach, Senegal was eliminated from the group stages of both the 2017 WAFU tournament and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
This was even after Cisse had been in charge of the team for two years and had had a better understanding of his players. Regardless, his contract was extended. Even when the team narrowly missed out on lifting the African Cup in 2019, they remained confident in him.
Then, ‘wunderbarrrrrrrrr’ (in the voice of Kwabena Yeboah, the celebrated Ghanaian football commentator), in 2021, Aliou Cisse led his country to the first AFCON trophy in Senegalese football history.
Can we learn something from this?
Otto Addo was appointed caretaker coach In February 2022 and he led Ghana to qualify for the world cup against the odds. But bizarrely, we are calling for his dismissal after losing the first half of a friendly match to a Brazilian national team comprised of Neymar, Silva, Vinicius, and Alisson, all of whom have won the UEFA Champions League and highly ranked football leagues in recent years. Is this not just perplexing? When are we going to learn the right lessons?
As the world cup draws closer, let’s rally our support for Otto Addo and the Black Stars and let us continue to support the team even after the tournament.
#BringBackTheLove #SupportBlackStars #SupportOttoAddo
By: Alexander Obuo Owusu
