Leave wives, girlfriends behind and focus on World Cup — Afriyie Ankrah tells Black Stars

Former Minister of Youth and Sports (MoYS), Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, has advised the Black Stars to fully commit to the upcoming World Cup by keeping away any distractions. In his view, for a tournament that spans just four weeks for any team that makes it to the final, it is important that the team focuses on the task at hand in seeking to bring honour to themselves and the country. He told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that players should avoid taking along their partners to the tournament in order to have their eyes on glory. “The team must be focused and dedicated for the World Cup period. This is a tournament for just a few weeks. The players should leave their wives and girlfriends for those few weeks and focus on bringing glory to Ghana and themselves,” he said.  “It is a privilege to don the national colours and players should not think they are doing us a favour by representing Ghana,” he stressed. The Black Stars qualified for the World Cup after beating Nigeria in a two-legged playoff. The team is pooled with Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea in Group H. This would be Ghana’s fourth appearance at the Mundial after 2006 in Germany, South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2024. Their best performance was reaching the quarterfinal stage at the 2010 showpiece in South Africa. Coach Otto Addo is yet to name his provisional squad for the tournament with one friendly game, against Switzerland, meant to be the final fixture before the team emplanes to Qatar. SARA/PEN