Patriots’ game
Ange is right, playing in a tournament is a big deal for Africans and Asians — the reasons are very deep
NOT for the first time this season, it was left to Ange Postecoglou to be the grown-up in the room. The Tottenham manager had just been asked about the effect on his team that he will be without three key players this month and possibly much of February, as Son Heung-min is on Asian Cup duty with South Korea, while Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma are representing Senegal and Mali at the African Cup of Nations (AFCON).
‘We’ve got a generational talent from Asia that’s been representing our club. If we lose him every four years for five weeks, I think that’s a real small price to pay,’ the Spurs boss, who led Australia to the 2015 Asian Cup, pointed out.
‘I love international football. I think it’s important. I don’t like the way the calendar has been crammed, but the tournaments that these guys are going to are significant tournaments, they have not just been thrown together in the last couple of years. The African Cup of Nations is very important and the Asian Cup is very important.
‘You have got to understand these guys, this is where they were brought up. This is where a lot of who they are today comes from and when they go and represent their country and put their shirt on, it’s just not another game of football for them.’
The Aussie really has been a breath of fresh air in the Premier League — and the intelligence and reason he appears to display in every press conference must make quite the contrast for those journalists on the Tottenham beat who previously had to suffer through Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho. In a few short sentences, Postecoglou laid it bare for all of English football — AFCON matters and the Asian Cup matters, probably more than the crazy-money soap opera that we are all involved in.
And slowly, the penny may finally be beginning to drop among Premier League clubs and fans that the likes of Riyad Mahrez and Mo Salah don’t high-tail out of their clubs for some meaningless competition every couple of years. After another stellar Salah show in the 4-2 win over Newcastle on New Year’s Day, the narrative among Liverpool fans did revolve around how the absence of their superstar was going to affect the team’s efforts to dethrone Manchester City. But it shouldn’t take Postecoglou to point out that Salah, at 31, might be getting the final chance of burnishing his legacy by leading Egypt to the same kind of glory that he led Liverpool to a few years ago.
Sky Sports has again secured the rights to AFCON and there will be more than a little Irish interest in the competition with prospective Ireland manager Chris Hughton in charge of Ghana, while Shamrock Rovers’ Roberto Lopes will once again be anchoring the defence of Cape Verde, his father’s homeland.
For years, AFCON was ignored by the bigger broadcasters and was shoved into a free part of Screensport or Eurosport’s schedule — the Asian Cup wasn’t picked up by Sky or TNT as can only be viewed in this part of the world on the streaming service, Triller TV. But the fact that Sky ponied up for AFCON is an illustration of how attitudes are changing — and how the African influence has transformed the game in England — and Europe, as a whole.
Sky being Sky, they are only interested in the Premier League, though. That being said, their documentary — How Africa Changed the Premier League — which they aired ahead of AFCON was an enjoyable trip down memory lane as well as showing us how far the game has come.
For far too long, it seemed like the only footballer to come to England from Africa was Bruce Grobbelaar, the eccentric Liverpool goalkeeper from Zimbabwe. When the Premier League came into existence in 1992, the documentary points out there were only four African footballers involved — Grobbelaar, Peter Ndlovu, Efan Ekoku and Lucas Radebe. At the start of this season, there were 50 players from the continent involved in the league and all but two of the clubs had an African footballer on their books.
Radebe ended up making 197 appearances in the top-flight for Leeds and his former manager Howard Wilkinson reckons he played every position for the club, including in goals twice. The former centre-half, and firm fan favourite at Elland Road, was an astute contributor to the documentary, explaining how he playing in England helped changed the perception of Africa.
‘Football for us in Africa was not just to play football, but it was to change perceptions,’ the former Leeds skipper observed. ‘It was more about hope and alleviating violence and crime through sports and through football. We wanted to showcase that it is possible for youngsters from the dusty streets of Soweto to be recognised in the world just for playing football.’
Of course, he wasn’t the only hero from Africa in Elland Road around that time. Tony Yeboah’s remarkable ability to score bangers means that his three seasons in Yorkshire are enshrined in folklore.
Former Bolton boss Sam Allardyce also emphasised the joyfulness that Jay-Jay Okacha generated in the Reebok Stadium.
‘He was never appreciated in this country as much as he should because he played for Bolton,’ Big Sam declares at one point in the documentary.
The documentary highlights neglected stories, too. I had completely forgotten the role that Christopher Wreh played in Arsenal’s Premier League triumph in 1998. Wreh was the first African title winner according to the documentary (football only began in 1992 in Sky’s world so Grobbelaar’s league medals mustn’t count) and it concludes with how Riyad Mahrez, player of the year during Leicester’s fairy-tale season of 2015-16, has now won five Premier League medals. We have come a long way.
By 2023, 400 different players had represented 33 different African countries in the Premier League. African players have scored nearly 3,000 goals and some of them have become the greatest players in Premier League history, such as Salah and Didier Drogba.
This year’s AFCON is in Drogba’s native Ivory Coast, notable because the former Chelsea striker used his profile as a global superstar to end the Civil War in his country back in 2007. And it was Drogba’s influence that brought an Ivory Coast game to the rebel stronghold of Bouake to try and heal the wounds of the conflict and bring peace.
The Stade de la Prix in the country’s second largest city hosted no football games between October 2002 and March 2007 when it was alleged to be have been used an execution site by the Forces Nouvelles de Cote d’Ivories(New Forces). So when Ivory Coast beat Madagascar 5-0 there in July 2007, after a peace agreement was signed, it had a significance far beyond a mere football game.
And it is just another reason why what is taking place in Ivory Coast over the next few weeks is important. And significant. We shouldn’t need Ange Postecoglou being the voice of reason to understand that.