Posted by Thirty eight (1982) years on since Michael Owusu Mensah saved 2 penalties in front of the intimidating and boisterous Libyan fans to hand Ghana it 4th and last African Cup of Nations (AFCON) trophy.
Ghana since then has endured series of misses, making the finals on three occasions (1992, 2010, 2015), losing twice against Ivory Coast and one against Egypt.
There have been numerous theories as to why Ghana hasn’t won the continental trophy since 1982. The most common is the politics in the team.
But Willie Klutse who was a member of the team that won the AFCON in Accra in 1978 believes the playing body is the bane of Ghana’s trophy drought. Stating that their only concern is about money and not making history.
“I see players projecting themselves for their foreign contracts and forgetting about the agenda of the country,” Klutse told Joy News.
“Right now, we are [concerned] about not winning the Afcon trophy in 39 years. Is that the mentality of our players? Are they also thinking like that? Are they hungry to win the cup for us or they are just trying to play in the Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup to better their contracts outside the country?
“If they have this mentality, there is no way we can win the Africa Cup of Nations now. Because the mentality back then is different from the mentality that I see this time around.
“They only come and their mentality is on money. They are going to the Africa Cup of Nations and they want to meet the president and bargain how much [they] are getting. They have their [own agenda] because the focus is on the money and not the cup.”
The national team in 2014 at the World Cup in Brazil was hit with a money related controversy. The unfortunate and damning incident lead to Ghana’s exit from the tournament in the Group stage. The country’s worst performance at the global tournament.