Ghanaian Superstar Footballers and Their Preferred Ladies

The divorce drove of ex-footballers and those currently playing but, are gradually heading for retirement has become a sense of concern to the Ghanaian society. The sports fraternity on a daily basis wakes up to the shocking news story of a football celebrity losing the marriage that one cannot fathom the possible cause(s).

This piece will employ some social models to unravel the current trend leading to the spate of separation between one time happy-going couples.

The social prestige which National Football players earn for themselves as well as the psychological satisfaction they draw to entourage who move with them including their wives, families and friends comes along with lots of opportunities. This social recognition was not there during their playing days in the local league. Hence, a call to any of the national teams helps boost the image and reputation of these players. An added platform is the foreign contracts, which take them to plough their trade at giant clubs in mainly Europe. The financial success stories of these players are evident for all to see.

The educational level of our players whether playing locally or foreign is no secret. Therefore, ploughing their trade out there at well-established clubs in many ways shelves this unenlightened aspect of their lives. Hence, without proper foundation in education, these footballers would have been denied social recognition, but thanks to football. Their new found fame gives these players new friends, taste and associates. Some have ended up quitting old relationships with ladies they have known for years for others that, thanks to football would never have materialized. There lies a complete discrepancy, which would come to roust later in their lives. Examples abound of players who have gotten married to Miss Ghana’s and Malaika’s only when they had returned from successful expedition with any of the national teams and secured contracts abroad.

However, when these players are at the heights of their trade, some do not invest as they live in an ambiance of flashy cars as well as dishing out expensive gifts to friends, media men and girlfriends. They also have families to satisfy. This places a burden of demand on these gentlemen. Need you be reminded that, footballers retire at age 35 or 36? In some instances the career of these players can come to an abrupt end with a serious injury. Hence, when these players retire without any established and structured investment in place, they become a burden onto themselves and the formers’ dependants. That is, when the fair whether friends begin to flee. If not how can players having ploughed the trade in Europe at the highest level would end up at a second tier side in one of the African countries - for what?

Additionally, when these players fall out of the senior national team, the social esteem and the psychological satisfaction they had wanes. With no attention on them as it used to be, coupled with dwindling finances, their former acquaintances often part ways with them. We are well aware of how the wives of these Black Star players flock together, and in some cases have formed associations. How do the wives of these footballers move about without the aura and people pointing at them when they are out and about and the added preferential treatment they stand to receive for being married to a superstar?

In spite of the belief that divorce can occur any way, the circumstances in which these footballers meet and marry their wives is sometimes questionable. Personalities marry but characters co-exist. When the curtains drop on the trade of these players, they return to their former selves. This puts them at a disadvantage to highly educated ladies and with no regular income. We are in the known of the plight of some retired footballers without proper retirement plans; therefore, with an eminent burden former acquaintances abandon these former stars to their fate. Why are these former national team players not divorced when they are at their peak and still making the headlines? When the fame is gone so will their dependants.

It also serves these former stars somewhat good and a lesson to the emerging professional players. They should be able to stick and stay with the very ladies who helped them from the beginning. Ignoring these ladies who fed and helped them in some instances with football boots will bring no blessing. What these players go for during the peak of their career does not help them either. The Miss. Ghana’s and Malaika’s are also not their class. Such relationships represent, conditional love with weak foundations, which come crushing like paper cards with little pressure just as what we have been reading from the newspapers and hearing from the various radio stations.

Those you see on your way up the ladder are the same people you will meet on your way down.

Patrick Twumasi

(0209045931)