Online Reporter
Sharuko on Saturday
I HAVE never liked Jamie Carragher.
After all, he is a Liverpool legend and naturally I am allergic to liking those who represent a part of the heart and soul of the Reds of Anfield.
That’s how life shapes you when you are an apologetic Manchester United fan, even in a very dark era where your club resembles more of Mansfield than proper Red Devils.
Of course, Carragher was a decent defender and stalking strikers was pretty much the only thing he could do given his clear limitations when it comes to talent.
If it wasn’t defending, it’s very likely that his only other place on a football pitch would have been playing the role of a ball boy.
Let me be very clear — I am not belittling the massive role talented defenders play in football.
But I am just highlighting that it’s a soft underbelly of the game, an area which can easily be invaded by many folks, who do not have natural talent, like Carragher.
In March 2018, Carragher gave me another reason not to like him when he was caught on camera spitting in the direction of a 14-year-old girl on a motorway after the Reds lost 1-2 to United at Old Trafford.
The footage showed a car pulling alongside the vehicle Carragher was driving and he lowered his window and, as a man in the other car teased him about Liverpool’s defeat, he spat at the 14-year-old girl sitting in that car.
Sky Sports, where Carragher works as one of the highest paid pundits in world football, suspended him but, after he apologised and took ownership of his foolish act, he was brought back to the television channel.
El Hadji Diouf, who played alongside Carragher at Liverpool, was charged by police and fined for spitting at a Celtic fan.
The Senegalese star, who has even claimed Carragher is a racist, has never had kind words for his former teammate.
“He was a right footed player with two left feet. If he wasn’t a Scouser, a son of Liverpool, he would never have had the career he did,” Diouf said about Carragher.
I know that Carragher doesn’t even care a hoot whether I like him or not and I’m also very fine with that.
Jose Mourinho has also publicly questioned how someone like Carragher, who never won the league championship during his lengthy career, can now transform into an oasis of wisdom who prescribes how others should win the league.
And, it really infuriates Mourinho that Carragher has a platform to savagely criticise those who fail to win the league yet he also failed to do so playing for a major club like Liverpool.
KLOPP ALSO SAID IT WAS A LITTLE TOURNAMENT
I don’t agree with Mourinho here, though, because it doesn’t mean that if Carragher failed to win the league as a player it means he doesn’t have valid opinions of how others can win it.
Recently, Carragher torched a mega storm when he claimed the AFCON was not a major tournament.
He was implying that Mohamed Salah, the world’s best footballer right now, would struggle to win the Ballon d’Or because he won’t get any value from the AFCON finals even if he wins it.
It has provoked a fierce backlash from the likes of Rio Ferdinand and many African stars, including his old foe Diouf, who have been hammering Carragher either for his ignorance or for his disrespect or both.
Many of the African stars have been emotional in their criticism of Carragher and one can understand their anger because this is not only an attack on AFCON itself but an attack on all of us as Africans.
The AFCON is our biggest football tournament on this continent and we love it.
Here in Zimbabwe we waited for 23 years to qualify for the AFCON and when we eventually did it sparked a national party, triggered by sport, which I have not seen since.
Carragher is not the first high-profile European to show an element of disrespect for AFCON.
In November 2021, Jurgen Klopp described AFCON as a “little tournament in Africa,” and while he did not get the firestorm of a backlash which Carragher is getting, he disrespected our tourney.
I don’t like what these two gentlemen said about AFCON and that they are both of a Liverpool persuasion only makes it worse.
But, it is also important to put things into perspective and ask questions if we, the people of Africa, are also not responsible for belittling our flagship tournament which has now opened a valve for these Europeans to belittle it?
If an entire continent like ours, with tens of millions of great football brains, allows an ineligible player to represent a country at the AFCON finals, aren’t we belittling our tournament and giving Europeans ammunition to attack it?
Isn’t it a mockery to AFCON that we allowed Emilio Nsue, a Spaniard, to play for Equatorial Guinea in 2015, 2021 and 2023 AFCON finals when he was not eligible to play for the West African country?
Nsue, born in Spain to a Spanish mother and a father from Equatorial Guinea, was captain of the West African nation at the 2023 AFCON and ended up as the tournament’s top scorer even though he was ineligible to play at the tourney.
If we are embarrassing ourselves in that way, allowing an ineligible player not only to feature at the AFCON but also captain a team and win the Golden Boot award, why do we think others can’t belittle our tournament?
If we allow a player like Andre Onana to miss the entire Cameroon AFCON pre-tournament camp and arrive on the eve of the Indomitable Lions’ first match at the 2023 AFCON finals, aren’t we sending a signal that our tournament is not very important?
If we allow someone like Rigobert Song to say that he did not see any problem with Onana arriving on the eve of Cameroon’s first game at the AFCON, what message are we sending out there about the importance of our flagship tournament?
WE ARE ALSO TO BLAME FOR ALL THIS
We are the same people who have devalued our AFCON by making sure that excellent performance at this tournament doesn’t really contribute to one winning the African Player of the Year award.
If we want foreigners like Carragher to respect our tournament we have to start giving it respect here in Africa and as Africans.
And, that means ensuring that winning this tournament can help a footballer win the African Player of the Year award.
We can’t expect Salah to get a lot of value in his bid to win the Ballon d’Or from winning AFCON when we are the very same people who have made sure that many who have won it in the past didn’t even get enough value to help them win the African Player of the Year award.
Ahmed Hassam, the world’s most capped footballer with 184 appearances for Egypt, did not win the CAF Player of the Year award despite winning four AFCON titles.
We are the same people who decided that Hassan’s serial AFCON success was not good enough for him to win the CAF Player of the Year so why are we now going ballistic because Carragher has said our tournament doesn’t have any real value when it comes to major awards?
Why didn’t we protest when Mohamed Aboutrika was overlooked for the CAF Player of the Year award despite all that he did for the Pharaohs’ cause and a number of AFCON titles?
Didn’t we realise back then that we were just belittling the value of our own AFCON and opening a window for foreigners to come in and question its real value?
Why didn’t we all protest when Jay Jay Okocha, despite winning the AFCON with Nigeria in Tunisia in 2004 and ending as the top-scorer, was not given the CAF Player of the Year, which went to Didier Drogba that year?
When we have the madness where a footballer, who is voted as the CAF Player of the Tournament, ends up not even making the CAF Team of the Year in the same season, as was the case with Christian Atsu of Ghana in and William Troost-Ekong of Nigeria, what message are we sending out there about the value of our tournament?
We have many footballers who won the Golden Ball at AFCON but they were all ignored when it came to the CAF Player of the Tournament and what message have we been sending about the importance of our tournament?
Song (2002), Troost-Ekong (2023), Atsu (2015), Hosny Abd Rabo (2008), Chris Katongo (2012), Jonathan Pitroipa (2013), Christian Bassong (2017), Ismael Bennacer (2019) all won the AFCON Player of the Tournament but were ignored in the CAF Player of the Year award in the same year.
We need to look ourselves in the mirror and we will see that we are also to blame for all this mess.
For years Bebe wanted to play for Portugal but, at the age of 31, he realised his chances were very slim and remembered that he was from Cape Verde and he was even given the captaincy.
Pogba won the World Cup with France and only when he had problems with authorities and was banned did he remember that Guinea was home and we saw him wearing a Guinea national team jersey.
When Carragher sees Mbappe playing for France instead of Cameroon, Saka playing for England instead of Nigeria, Nkuku playing for France instead of the DRC and William Saliba playing for France instead of Cameroon, he has a reason to question the importance of AFCON.
In his world, if it was a tournament of significant importance, Leao would be playing for Angola instead of Portugal and Jules Kounde would be playing for Benin instead of France.
To God be the Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Khamaldhinoooooooooooooooooo!
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