La Copacabadi beach: The Brazil in Ghana – Selwyn Sackey
Mural of Afro Brazilian Colony in Accra,Ghana.
Ghana ‘the brazil of African football’. A term adopted in the football circles especially during international tournaments. It is no coincidence as to why the two nations have similarities in style of play. A typical Ghanaian or Brazilian footballer will like to show his tricks and dribbling skills.
Ghana is located in West Africa while Brazil is in South America. Different continents but science makes us understand the history and geographic locations of continents through Tectonic activities. Continents rest on massive slabs of rocks called tectonic plates and move away from each other through these activities. Continents are still moving today and we can evidently see that if you try to join the East Coast of South America to the West African coast, it fits.
Merged South America and Africa
Brazil House of the Tabon People. Accra, Ghana.
History will also refer to us that a lot of slaves from Ghana then ‘Gold Coast’ were “exported” across the Atlantic Ocean to South America especially Brazil. Until the late 1800s slave population of Brazil exceeded the freemen. In Accra there’s a Brazil House in the Tabon Community.
They are Afro Brazilians who returned from exile in 1836.Then newly arrived “strangers” and their descendants and others who “returned” from overseas exile, found space to preserve their unique “Brazilian” identity while adopting the Ga language. The Ga people labelled the Brazilians “Tabon.”
This nickname was apparently a local rendering of the Portuguese greeting, “ésta bom” and “ta bom.” Both terms mean “how are you” and “all’s well” respectively. Coconut Trees, Carnivals, Music, Drums, Dance and Spirituality are what you’ll experience at the Copacabana and Labadi Beach.
In Ghana we say “Football is the passion of the nation”, Brazil says “the nation’s passion or the country of football”. There’s no way we can compare Brazil and Ghana on the football world stage. Brazil is obviously miles apart but let us look at them in their respective continents. Brazil has 9 Copa America titles, they won their fourth in 1989 while Ghana had won their fourth and last AFCON seven years earlier. In 2019, Brazil won their 9th Copa America. In 2019, Ghana made their 19th attempt at winning the AFCON after their last in 1982. It’s been 38 years since Ghana Black Stars last won a major tournament.
On the 6th February, 1969 Accra Hearts of Oak were held to a 2–2 draw game by a Pele led Santos FC of Brazil in an international friendly at the Accra Sports Stadium. Pele went on to predict an African country will win the World Cup before the 21st Century.
Hearts of Oak Striker Amusa Gbadamosi and Pele
Ghana’s greatest player Abedi Ayew was named after one of the world’s greatest Edson Arantes do Nascimento ‘Pele’. Another Ghanaian player who was dubbed as the next Pele is Nii Odartey Lamptey.
Who Pele himself said that’s his successor after he watched the then 15 year old live at Hampden Park when he burst onto the scene in the 1989 Under 16 World Championship before leading Ghana to win the successive tournament in 1991 and winning the best player of the tournament.
A tournament which had Alessandro Del Piero and Juan Sebastian Veron of Italy and Argentina respectively. In the streets and sandy fields where football is played in Ghana there are so many players nicknamed Pele because of their dribbling skills and tricks. Growing up as a young Ghanaian footballer in my generation, you were either Ronaldo Fenomeno or Ronaldinho Gaucho and our fathers made reference to Romario and Bebeto. So you know from generations Ghana draws inspiration from the World’s greatest football nation, Brazil.
Nii Odartey Lamptey celebrates winning the 1991 FIFA Under 17 World Cup.
In 1995,Ghana won their second Under-17 FIFA World Cup beating Brazil 3–2. In 1997 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, Brazil beat Ghana 2–1 in the final in Egypt. A game Ghana dominated but lost to loss of concentration.In 1999 FIFA Under-17 World Cup the two nations clashed in the semi-final with the South Americans winning on penalties and going ahead to win their second FIFA Under-17 World Cup.
Ghana’s Under-20 team Black Satellites met their South American counter parts in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in 2001 in Argentina. The West Africans won 2–1 in the quarter finals against Brazil going all the way to the final but lost to the host nation. The two nations crossed paths again in the 2007 FIFA Under-17 World Cup. Ghana won 1–0 in the round of 16. The Black Starlets finished in the semi finals losing 2–1 to a Bojan Krkic extra time match winner for Spain. Two years after that on African soil, Ghana became the first African nation to win the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Egypt. 4–3 on penalties against Brazil after a goalless 120 minutes of football.
Three years earlier, their seniors, the Black Stars were battered by Selecao (Brazil Senior national team) 3–0 in the Round of 16 of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Notable names in that fixture are players who beat Brazil in 2001 in the Under-20 tournament. Muntari, Essien, Pappoe, Mensah, Boateng, Pimpong, Paintsil and Owu were all part of the 2001 winning side. For the Brazilians, only Adriano and Kaka were in that 2001 squad. In the 1999 Ghana Under-17 team that lost to Brazil on penalties in the semifinal were names like Razak Pimpong, Michael Essien and Ishmael Addo who won the tournament’s golden boot with 7 goals.
Brazil had Adriano as the only breakout star of their squad. In the previous tournament which Brazil won they had a certain Ronaldinho. In 1995 which Ghana won the Under-17 FIFA World Cup, the West Africans had a certain Stephen Appiah who captained the 2006 world cup squad.Brazil also had Juan and Julio Cesar in 1995 and 2006. This Ghana team are products of former Ghana FA boss, the Late Ben Kuofie’s Five Year Development plan.
From Left to Right. Ibrahim Abdul Razak, John Paintsil, John Mensah, Razak Pimpong,Michael Essien and Derek Boateng. Ghana Black Satellites, FIFA U-20 World Cup Argentina 2001.
At the 2009 FIFA Under-20 World Cup which Ghana won with 10 men and on penalties, Ghana’s attacker Dominic Adiyiah won the Golden Ball and Golden shoe with 8 goals. After the tournament, Adiyiah’s market value had risen from 100,000 Euros to 1 million Euros. Milan signed him for a reported 1.4 Million Euros. Alex Teixeira the silver ball winner from Brazil had a market value of 3.5 Million Euros after the tournament and was sold for 6 million Euros to Shakhtar Donetsk from Vasco. Bronze ball winner Giuliano was also transferred from Parana to Internacional in 2009 for 4.7 million Euros in the Brazilian Serie A. Juventus’ winger Douglas Costa was a member of the 2009 Brazilian Under-20 team. He also joined Shakhtar Donetsk for 8 Million Euros at a Market Value of 4 Million Euros from Gremio in 2010.
Giuliano, Dominic Adiyiah and Alex Teixeira. Source: FIFA.com
Let’s date back to 1991 where Odartey Lamptey the new ‘Pele’ was playing for Anderlecht in Belgium. Lamptey was smuggled from Ghana to Belgium through Nigeria after the Ghanaian FA confiscated his passport, he joined for free. The Late Stephen Keshi adopted Odartey and got him a Nigerian passport to fly to Europe. In the 95, 97 and 99 squads of Ghana, most players transferred from Ghana to Europe left for free due to various circumstances. In that 2001 squad, 18 year old Michael Essien had joined Bastia for an undisclosed fee but was sold to Lyon two years later for 11.7 Million Euros and went on to become the most expensive African player when he joined Chelsea for 38 Million Euros in 2005.
All these foundations are laid to understand why two football nations with similar history and culture but one has developed than the other. First of all, this comes down to the quality of the local leagues of both countries, the football brand, how valuable it is on the Global stage and level of youth development. It is obvious Brazil has invested more into their football as a nation while Ghana has done less of that.
In 1962 after Brazil had won the world cup, President of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah sent national team coach Charles Gyamfi to Brazil’s national team camp for four weeks to study their tactics and methods. He came back and won the 1963 Africa Cup of Nations, Ghana’s first trophy.
Captain Aggrey Fynn lifts Ghana’s first Africa Cup of Nations in 1963.
Brazil’s legendary coach Carlos Alberto Parreira came to Ghana in 1967 as a young Physical Education Teacher. He started coaching and led Ghana to the 1968 AFCON Final where Ghana lost 1–0 to Zaire (DRC). So we can say Carlos Alberto Parreira had his coaching foundation in Ghana and shaped our modern game. One of Ghana’s best coaches ever, the late Sir Cecil Jones Attuquayefio says the Brazilian was partly responsible for giving Ghana their one-touch style which he claims leads them to be called the “Brazil of Africa”.
We have mismanaged our national teams, poorly organized our local league to make it profitable and finally abandoned youth football development. The government should assist the clubs in youth development. The Ministry of Youth and Sports should collaborate with the Ministry of Education and Ghana Football Association to build a youth football development plan for both boys and girls.
Source: https://medium.com/@sackeyselwyn/la-copacabadi-beach-the-brazil-in-ghana-c46c8db31262