By Joseph Opio in Pretoria
THERE’S life after a foul-mouthed tirade against one’s coach after all.Just days after France’s Nicolas Anelka was kicked out of the World Cup for an expletive-laden attack on Raymond Domenech, Ghana’s Sulley Muntari survived a similar fate thanks to dramatic, late-night interventions from senior players and the national FA boss.
The Inter Milan forward seemed on the verge of being ejected for a shocking outburst against coach Milovan Rajevac after Ghana’s 1-all draw against Australia.
But, fearful of disrupting team harmony, senior players interceded on Muntari’s behalf to avert what was shaping into a full-blown crisis.
The entire Muntari-Rajevac saga started soon after Saturday’s draw when an incensed Muntari dared to challenge the Serb’s authority and the abilities of a number of his teammates.
Misplaced fury “According to my sources in the squad, Muntari entered the dressing room after the match in absolute fury. He slammed the door, kicked the lockers and started insulting Rajevac in a local dialect,” Ale Aeinafe, a Ghanaian radio journalist revealed.
While the lion’s share of Muntari’s was aimed at Rajevac, he also fired irate broadsides at junior players like Andre Ayew and Kwadwo Asamoah who he felt were being favoured by the coach at the expense of the more experienced stars.
Ayew, former captain of Ghana’s triumphant U-20 team, has been preferred to Muntari since he helped the Black Stars to the Nations Cup final last January. Muntari missed that tournament after another disciplinary run-in led to his omission from the squad.
“It all comes down to ego,” Aeinafe insisted. “Muntari’s success at Inter has gone to his head and he has no respect for Rajevac. Muntari came off the bench at Inter the whole of last season but he wouldn’t insult [Jose] Mourinho like he did Rajevac.
Will the ceasefire hold?
Not that the shaky ceasefire brokered by Stephen Appiah between the pair will last. The popular perception among Ghanaian fans is that the truce was only facilitated by Rajevac’s desire not to alienate senior players like Appiah and John Mensah and turn Ghana into the next France before the critical crucial match against Germany. The extent of the coach-player fallout was evident in the aftermath of Muntari’s attack. Not only did Rajevac refuse to attend a scheduled clear-the-air meeting thereafter in which Muntari apologised to the entire team, the Serb rejected a hand-shake from the midfielder on the team bus the following day.
It wasn’t Muntari’s first run-in with Rajevac since the two buried the hatchet post-Nations Cup. The Serb was apparently livid last month when Muntari refused to share a hotel room with a teammate, demanding to sleep alone since Essien, the player he always shares rooms with, had withdrawn from the World Cup party injured. That particular incident highlighted Muntari’s attitude towards the new generation of youngsters who apparently had threatened to mutiny after his Saturday insults till the midfielder offered that apology.
