[ 2016-08-11 ]

West Ham deal entrenches Dede as new poster boy of Ghana football
The photos from Andre Ayew’s presentation as a
West Ham United player bore a striking semblance
to when he arrived at Swansea City last season.
White shirt, that broad smile and striking daddy
Abedi Pele by his side in his smart suit.

For the second straight summer, Abedi’s boy has
provided potentially the most significant transfer
involving a Ghanaian player.

This summer too, like the last one, the transfer
activity involving Ghanaian players provides a
telling insight into the path the careers of many
Ghanaian players is travelling.

The insight is not that Abedi Pele has been a
central figure in the careers of his kids
especially Dede.

It is that as time has gone on, the individual
power base of Ghana football is shifting and that
increasingly the old guard that dominated our
thoughts, generated clicks and swaggered around in
Ghana football is changing.

Not long ago, this would have been a summer where
we would have been consumed by thoughts on Michael
Essien, Sulley Muntari, John Mensah’s glass
knees or whether Richard Kingson was set for
another season watching games from the stands and
getting paid for it.

That period was a reflection of a boom for many
of the players who had propelled Ghana to new
levels of global football recognition and the
attention we gave them, the clubs that went after
them reflected that.

These days it is all change. The transfer
activity involving Ghanaian players is almost like
a choreograph of the careers of Ghana’s biggest
names, established and rising stars.

It has also become a template for judging whose
career has taken the home straight to the finish
line, which one is warming up and which one is
suffering from fuel shortage halfway through the
journey.

Take the dominant stories of this summer and
those strands runs through all of them. We have
always known for sometime now that the likes of
Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari and Kevin Prince
Boateng are heading towards the twilight zone of
their careers if they are not already there. Look
at the nature of transfer activity around them or
the complete lack of it and what it says.

Essien has left Panathinaikos with his next
destination not exactly clear. It is almost as if
his career has been in full scale countdown state
since he left Chelsea; movement every season, long
spells on the bench throughout and general
uncertainty.

When Muntari left AC Milan and headed to Saudi
Arabia, it felt as if his time was just about up
too. After a season where he barely set the league
alight, he is back on the job market and without
much prospect of figuring in the big time again.
Maybe we now understand why as he says, he is
available for selection for Black Stars games
again.

Kevin Prince Boateng is another of those big
names whose transfer paints the perfect picture.
Boy wonder at Tottenham Hotspurs, rescued by
Portsmouth, offered the chance to the big stage
via Ghana at the 2010 world cup, good at AC Milan
for one season then literally off at Schalke
since.

Now he has settled in at Las Palmas for one
season ready to work his way up again. Given
Boateng’s history with the Ghana national team,
not many would particularly care the turn his club
career has taken.

Elsewhere, Asamoah Gyan is having to convince
people every day that he is still considered
relevant at Shanghai SIPG after reports that he
had been demoted. Gyan insists it is not true, the
club says it is not true either. What both parties
have not addressed is just how the recent injuries
plus arrival of Hulk and other big names at the
club does to the future of Gyan’s mega rich
contract.

The transfers involving some of the players
central to the Black Stars at the moment has not
been particularly great too. Christian Atsu is in
line to be shipped out by Chelsea again.

Four years after signing for Chelsea from FC
Porto, the Ghana star is yet to play a competitive
game for them. Even worse, he seems to retrogress
with every loan spell. His next move would be
interesting. Baba Rahman played but did not
convince for Chelsea which is why it serves a good
purpose for him to head out on loan at Schalke
04.

Thankfully in this transfer window, there has
been little exaggerated reports of which clubs
want which players apart from the laughable Gyan
to Chelsea rumours. It may be that we have all
grown wiser but the slow pace of activity for
Ghanaian players at the highest level may also
signal something we know which is that our players
are good but not the type who are considered A
listers yet.

Dede Ayew is different. Purchased at no fee by
Swansea City and shipped on for 25m pounds. It is
a great piece of business by Swansea. It is a
great testament to how well he did in his first
season too. And it is a reminder who Ghana’s
biggest football name is at the moment. These days
it is not even up for debate.

Source - 3news.com

... go Back