Stars must now repay nation?s adulation

My little nephew had a cute prayer he said every night when this country was immersed in World Cup glory. Before he went to bed he would say, ?Lord thank you for today, thank you for Stephen Appiah, thank you for Asamoah Gyan, thank you for Michael Essien and thank you for Michael Essien. Amen!?

Recorded by his mum on phone we would often have a laugh about it and watch him scream with excitement every time he saw anything resembling the Chelsea man. Up to this day he reminds me that I am yet to take him to see Essien in person. The Stars struck and he, like many in this land, was living a dream. And like many too, his affection for football and love affair with the key architects of Ghana?s relatively fine World Cup showing would have been sealed by the events of June 2006.

The period after the World Cup when the players arrived back in Ghana was an intriguing one. Bored by the daily routine of training, match days, press conferences and nothing, I returned to Accra wanting to sample a bit of night life.

I was not alone. Often in the country?s favourite night clubs, the centres of attention turned out to be the footballers. The MCs queued up to eulogise their names, the sections where Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien and his friends sat were mostly the prime areas. They truly milked the applause and on many occasions, they became the reasons why the clubs will be turning over with people.

The journalist in me would often just watch and reflect on what was going on. And invariably I was forced to look back as a means of looking forward. As recently as 2001, I was a witness to a wave of unflinching nationalism and hero worshipping even though on a smaller scale. Against all the odds, the national U-20 side had reached the final of the World Youth Cup and its prime members Derek Boateng, Essien and Razak Ibrahim among others were the toast of a nation that certainly knows how to fete its heroes and achievers.

While Essien has gone to great things since then, the careers of the other two while not completely poor surely adds another chapter to the many pages of unfulfilled promise that has become the central theme of Ghana football. Like my nephew, I derived a lot of interest in football from Ghana's World Cup showing in 1991 at the Under 17 level. Tiny, aged just 13 and in need of a national identity, the likes of Nii Odartey Lamptey and his mates provided me with the most convincing reason to scream out my nationality with the brand of football they played in Italy that summer.

In Germany, where the gains of that summer seemed to have emerged, Italy in 1991 served as the central focus for the critics and cynics of the African game. Too many questions were asked about why it had taken Ghana so long to arrive at that level. Foreign journalists openly raised the thorny issues of players and whether their ages were correct but they also asked a more relevant question; is there a guarantee that this country will sustain the gains made from the World Cup.

The reception for the players on their arrival was phenomenal. They were given the highest state honour, taken on bus rides in Accra and feted everywhere. Girls screamed out their names, grown up men gave them kingly ride on their backs as everyone scrambled for a piece of them.

As Michael Essien confessed, the gesture was moving but also as about the most criticised member of the squad before his face saving World Cup showing he would know that Ghanaians have a short fuss for failures.

And many of those players will now have to prove that they can raise their game and names to the next level. It is a pertinent issue in Africa where showings like the one in Germany has never been a guarantee for stepping up to greatness. Look at Senegal, the World Cup quarter-finalist against all odds in 2002 and tipped to become the next big force on the African continent, but they failed to live up to that expectation.

After the 2002 World Cup, El-Hadj Diouf was a big money signing for Gerard Houllier at Liverpool where he was joined by Salif Diao. Every big European club earmarked a Senegalese player they wanted to sign, they had the world at their feet.

Four years on, they are still to win their first African Cup and the crop of players tipped to become the next generation of big name African players have drifted into nobodies at obscure European clubs.

So, as I watched the players milk the applause, I wondered what would happen to the key figures in the next year. We would be watching with close eyes and more than anything else because it will be not only a test for the individual players but for the country's football.

Too many times we have impressed the world and failed to deliver on that. Can players like John Mensah, so remarkable at Ghana's defence throughout the Stars' matches, rise up to the top?

You have to be happy for John Paintsil who has sealed a move to West Ham United. It's not come with the fan fare of the Essien transfer but it is still a mighty leap from Israel to England.

When his mates were milking the applause of a good World Cup showing, Paintsil, easily one of Ghana's outstanding performers in Germany, was working his socks off in a bid to get a move to the premiership and inevitably more money. More important it is a positive statement on the quality of Ghanaian players. But like Senegal, they have showed getting there sometimes isn't the biggest problem but sustaining it.

First test of that will come against Togo in two weeks when the Stars will play the Hawks in an international friendly in London. And then afterwards, the likes of Essien, Muntari, Appiah and Asamoah Gyan must prove that they have not allowed the euphoria of a World Cup showing blunt their edge for success. Germany may have been good for Ghana but it has not defined our greatness yet. In 2008 when we host the African Cup of Nations, we could prove our soccer artistry. Another African title will take this country at the same level with Egypt, and above Cameroon in the all-time Nations Cup stakes.

If we are able to do that, we would have justified the hype of 2006 and showed that we know how to build on the success. Because unlike me, I don't want my nephew to feel his hero worshiping was in vein ten years down the line.