Ghana’s ambassador to Qatar, his Excellency Dr. Emmanuel Enos has urged the Black Stars to bring the AFCON home when he visited them at their camp in Doha on Friday, December 31, 2020 ahead of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations to be held in Cameroon next month.
Ghana has been training at the Aspire Academy facility since for the past six days in preparation for the tournament which kicks off on Sunday, January 9, 2022 in Yaoundé.
Addressing the players and the technical team, Dr. Emmanuel Enos said.
“My coming here is to personally congratulate all of you for the exploits you continue to showcase in the area of football.Your commitment, discipline, team spirit and team work is unparalleled and needs to be commended.”
“I am to motivate, empower and encourage you to do more, we all know the task ahead – from here we will be going to Cameroon for the AFCON. Let’s all put it at the back of our mind that the trophy is already ours.”-he added.
“You are blessed with an excellent management team, good coach, team spirit and good leadership - not to talk about your captain Andre Ayew. His dedication and devotion to the team is unparalleled. I believe the young ones will go far if they learn from him.”-he stated.
President of the Ghana Football Association, Kurt Edwin Simeon-Okraku who received the Ambassador expressed sincere gratitude to him and his staff for taking time out of their busy schedule to visit the team.
“We want to express our gratitude to you and your staff for coming. It wasn’t difficult settling on Qatar as our camping base because beyond the amazing facilities, we knew we will always be at home’’ President Simeon-Okraku said.
He added that, the team is determined to lift the giant trophy and bring it to Ghana .
“These boys have dedicated themselves to the national course and they believe it is time for us to break the 40 year wait for the AFCON trophy.
‘’They have abandon their family and left their clubs just to be here in Qatar to fight for the nation.”
“Beyond here, we will be in Cameroon for the AFCON and hopefully all the day and nights of sacrifice will pay off in Cameroon. We will play Morocco, Gabon and Comoros and we believe that we will top the group and go all the way to the final and win the trophy.”
“We believe in the course to bring the trophy to Ghana. We are extremely happy for your coming. We will not let the country down. There are a lot of doubting Thomas’s but we believe this squad will make us proud’’-he added.
The Black Stars were supposed to play their first friendly game on Tuesday against a club side in Qatar but the game had to be cancelled due to the late arrival of players.
Currently,15 players are in camp. The team will have a full house from January 3, 2022 when European clubs especially in England and Spain start to release their players ahead of the tournament.
By: Ayishatu Zakaria Ali
