[ads1]
Former President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi has tipped the Black Stars to win the 2021 AFCON tournament in Cameroon.
Ghana is in quest for a fifth AFCON trophy after last winning it in 1982. Since then, the West African country had lost three finals with the last against Ivory Coast in 2015.
Even though most Ghanaians have zero believe in the Black Stars winning the 33rd edition of the prestigious tournament in the continent, Mr. Kwesi Nyantakyi is optimistic Ghana has what it takes to lift the trophy at the expense of defending champions Algeria, Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Senegal and the other top countries.[ads2]
The former CAF first vice-President believes should Ghana fail to win the trophy, either one of Mali, Algeria, Morocco or Senegal will win the giant trophy and the $5m prize money.
“Aside Ghana, I can say there are three other countries that can win the trophy. First is Mali – they are doing massively well and even have academies in Ghana. They went to the 2015 U-20 World Cup with the best player Adama Traore in the current squad for the AFCON, they have most of their top Stars still available with the team.[ads3]
“The problem the AFCON had is the Europe-based players being released to their countries very late and it has affected all the countries including Ghana, Cameroon and others and should any country win the tournament, then it will be those that their players have played together for a very long time or with enough of the locally-based players, and because of that, Algeria and Morocco are also favorites alongside Senegal.
“Despite everything that I have said, Ghana will dominate all of them and win the trophy. The last time we won the tournament was in 1982 and since then we’ve lost three finals but I pray this time around we will be able to reach the final and go ahead to win because we deserve it”, Mr. Nyantakyi said during an interview on Accra-based Onua FM/TV.[ads4]
Meanwhile, the tournament has been scheduled to commence on January 9, 2022 and end in February 6, 2022 with 24 countries to participate.
Ghana will play its first game of the tournament against Morocco on January 10, 2022 before playing against Gabon and Comoros…[ads5]
