World Cup 2022 team guides part 29: Ghana
This article is part of the Guardian’s World Cup 2022 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 32 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 20 November.
The plan
Confidence is rarely low among Ghanaians when the national team are preparing for an international tournament yet, going into Qatar 2022, expectations are being managed – and rightly so. The Black Stars have struggled for form across their past 12 games, winning only two (and they were against opponents ranked outside Fifa’s top 100).
Even the two-legged playoff success against Nigeria that secured qualification to the World Cup was not memorable for being a great spectacle, only for the remarkable tactical discipline that produced two draws and took the team through on away goals.
Quick Guide
Ghana group fixtures
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It does not look as if the head coach, Otto Addo, knows what his best team is when it comes to personnel and tactics as he keeps chopping and changing both but the former Ghana and Borussia Dortmund player insists he has it all under control. “I’m ready [for the World Cup], everybody is ready,” he said last month. “We qualified, that’s why we deserve to be there and we’ll give everything. Ghana have proven in the past that we are a tournament team. I know we have to improve but I’m looking forward to the tournament.”
The fact that those words came at the end of a week that saw Ghana thumped 3-0 by Brazil before a narrow victory over Nicaragua makes them sound a little hollow. The general impression is that Addo is still pondering how best to set up in Qatar and will leave it until the last moment to decide. The pool of players available and playing well keeps expanding.
In a group with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, a Son Heung-min-inspired South Korea and a Uruguay side with whom the Black Stars have unfinished business, they cannot afford any weaknesses but it is fair to say that in recent weeks the goalkeeping situation has become a problem. Two keepers, Jojo Wollacott and Richard Ofori, were unable to make the squad because of injuries.
The coach
Otto Addo, who was made interim manager before the playoff games against Nigeria, is only the second Ghanaian – after Kwasi Appiah in 2013 – to guide the west African country to World Cup qualification. The fact that he overcame Ghana’s arch-rivals was a particularly impressive feat as it came on the back of the country’s worst ever Africa Cup of Nations performance.
However, the Black Stars have failed to kick on after eliminating Nigeria and Oddo’s inability to decide on a tactic and stick to it has left fans and players bewildered at times. That he wants his team to defend solidly is clear but beyond that there is little clarity.
The fact that Addo has not held a head coach role anywhere before getting the Ghana job counts against him but he has worked as a “talent coach” at Borussia Dortmund since 2019, helping players such as Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham settle and thrive at the Bundesliga club. A further plus is that Addo has coaching experience in the form of the former Newcastle and Brighton manager Chris Hughton, who is Ghana’s technical adviser, to call on in the buildup and during the tournament.
Star player
Central midfield, attacking midfield, No 10, false 9, winger? Mohammed Kudus is that rare player who can play – and play well – in all of these positions. What’s more, he can score from all of them too. Having made the move from the Right to Dream Academy to Nordsjælland in 2018 he impressed for two years in Denmark before a switch to Ajax – and now he has every Ghanaian dreaming of a successful World Cup. The 22-year-old from Accra is having a supercharged season with Ajax, having scored nine goals in his first 20 , four of them in the Champions League.
Mohammed Kudus in action against Brazil in September. The Ghana star has thrived at Ajax this season.
Unsung hero
Another of Ghana’s Premier League stars, Daniel Amartey has gone from being a bit-part player at Leicester to an increasingly important option for Brendan Rodgers. For Ghana, his central defensive partnership with Alexander Djiku has taken the Black Stars this far and, even with the emergence of Southampton’s Mohammed Salisu, Amartey is set to play an important part in Qatar. Salisu may be the more eye-catching defender but what makes Amartey a key player for Otto Addo is his versatility: he can do an equally good job at right-back or as a defensive midfielder.
Probable lineup
Photograph: The Guardian
Qatar stance
The Ghanaian football populace rarely dabbles in geopolitics, and the media take a cue from them. As a result, there’s been negligible coverage of the Qatar human rights issue by the national team, government and media. In a country where an economic crisis is biting, leading to a serious lack of basic amenities and services, a stance on Qatar is not a priority.
National anthem
God bless our homeland Ghana/And make our nation great and strong,
Bold to defend forever/The cause of Freedom and of Right;
Fill our hearts with true humility/Make us cherish fearless honesty,
And help us to resist oppressors’ rule/With all our will and might for evermore
These are the words of Ghana’s national anthem (the first stanza) – but that has not always been the case. The original lyrics, to a song composed by the late Philip Gbeho in 1957 (the year Ghana gained independence from British colonial rule), were replaced in the 1970s with a new version, written by Michael Kwame Gbordzoe. The anthem’s popularity is reflected in how loudly and proudly it is belted out by Ghanaian footballers and fans – not quite at the levels of Italy (an anthem we won’t hear this time), but close enough.
All-time cult hero
There is a reason Abedi Ayew earned the nickname “Pelé” during his playing days, bearing it long enough for it to become attached to the player as one of his official names. Ayew – father of the current Ghana captain, André, the Crystal Palace forward Jordan, and the Gibraltar-based midfielder Ibrahim – did not score goals in the same way as the Brazilian great but his mastery of the ball and the elegance with which he moved on the pitch was quite reminiscent of O Rei.
The 57-year-old was the first Ghanaian to win the European Cup, starring in the 1993 Champions League final in which Marseille stunned a terrific Milan side and for Ghana – during an international career spanning more than a decade – he was just as talismanic. He never made it to a World Cup himself but has lived the experience through his sons, who have been at four tournaments collectively.
Fentuo Tahiru Fentuo writes for Joy Sports. Follow him here on Twitter.