Beyond Jamie Carragher’s AFCON diss

“There are some players that would say something and you just have to overlook it. If you look at their career, if you look at the type of football they played, then you can understand. I mean… you won’t want your son to be like [Jamie] Carragher. So you can never appreciate African football or the talents that come from Africa.”

That was former Super Eagles captain, Austin Okocha, tearing into Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher following the latter’s dig at the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) this week. Carragher, speaking on Sky Sports, had thumbed down the AFCON by saying that if even if Mohamed Salah won it, it wouldn’t significantly increase his chances of winning the 2025 Ballon d’Or. Hear him: “Salah is at a disadvantage playing for Egypt in terms of him winning the Ballon d’Or. If  Salah had an average season at LFC but won the AFCON and was [Player of the Tournament], I don’t think he’d win the Ballon d’Or, because I don’t think the AFCON carries the weight of other tournaments. “

Naturally, Carragher’s co-pundits Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge pressed the pause button. Hear Richards: “Just to say, AFCON is a major tournament because a lot of people are at home saying ‘they aren’t taking it seriously’. AFCON is a big tournament, just so you know.” And sensible as usual, former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand weighed in, calling for greater respect for the AFCON. He said during a podcast on Monday: “It should be respected more than it is but what I would say is the lack of resources put into it… the narrative from the media that comes out is that it is a Mickey Mouse tournament. That comment is representative of the majority of the people out there; I don’t think that is right, that is ignorant. That is kind of a full process because of the Africa Cup of Nations. If you go to Abedi Pele, Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o all these players Riyad Mahrez, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane, we have to win this, it is a demand in their country to win this.”

Violating the Nigerian street code, “always refuse to salaye,” (offer needless explanations), Carragher later doubled down on his drivel: “The point I was trying to make yesterday was that Salah is at a disadvantage playing for Egypt in terms of him winning the Ballon d’Or. If Salah had an average season at LFC, but won the AFCON & was MVP, I don’t think he would win the Ballon d’Or. I don’t think AFCON carries the weight of other tournaments. But if Mbappe had an average season at Real Madrid but won the World Cup/Euros, he would still have a great opportunity.It’s not just about certain tournaments, [Andriy] Shevchenko [Ukraine] [Robert] Lewandowski [Poland] were never going to win the WC/Euros to help their case for the prize. I don’t think it’s controversial at all really it’s just a fact.”

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) predictably hit out at the low-1Q pundit notorious for mindless digs at Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. As it pointed out, the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) shattered viewership records, reaching a total of 2.2 billion viewers worldwide. That surpasses the viewership of the Super Bowl in the United States, which averaged 123.4 million viewers that same year, a 1.8 billion gap. The competition also saw a significant increase in digital engagement, with 2.1 billion digital interactions, 3.1 billion TikTok video views, and 12.5 million Instagram views. The 2.2 billion views was a substantial increase from the 350 million video views for AFCON 2021 as CAF has labelled this event as the most successful in the competitions history.

In 1995, Liberian great George Weah won the almighty Ballon d’Or, and Sadio Mane came close to winning it in 2022, but I don’t think that African players should be judged by the Balon D’or, an award basically orientated to non-Africans, the same overly politicized award than a middling Rodri won ahead of the more deserving Real Madrid player, Vinicius Junior.

Well, beyond Carragher’s dig, African countries must look inwards and reset their priorities. If lowlifes like Carragher are aiming a dig at Africans in the name of punditry, it is precisely because African leaders have betrayed their own people. If the forces of retrogression had not defeated revolutionaries like Thomas Sankara and Obafemi Awolowo, very few people would be daring to disrespect Africa today. The fact that Carragher, an average football talent, could dismiss the prime footballing competition in a continent of over one and a half billion people, a competition that has featured the likes of Abedi Pele, Roger Miller,  Rashidi Yekini, Samuel Eto, Didier Drogba, Austin Okocha, Mo Salah and many others, tells us all that we need to know: that all FIFA members are equal, at least in the estimation of Euro-American racists, but some are more equal than others. It is for the same reason that I do not set any store by the so-called Grammy that seems to have driven the likes of Burna Boy into insane heights of arrogance. Somebody called Tems has a Grammy but King Sunny Ade and Fela Anikulapo do not. Is anyone supposed to think that any Nigerian Grammy winner is superior musically to these names? Tanzania’s Queen of Tarab, Bi Kidude, did not have a Grammy, did she?

In 1974, the IMF approached Nigeria for a loan. That was when Africa had leaders with a bit of commonsense. Today, it is dross that you see everywhere, and gone are the days when fans filled the stadiums watching Stationery Stores, Shooting Stars, Rangers, El-Kanemi Warriors and Mighty Jets. Today, it is white people’s competitions that dominate the airwaves. When all we do is destroy ourselves and glorify anything white, why should we expect any respect?

Re: If we don’t take charge of our forests…

Securing the forest reserves in all of the South West(SW) from the invasion of intruders with ulterior motives is a must by all the regional governments. Precisely, the necessity to have a joint local security outfit is now. No piecemeal approach. The SW governments don’t need to reinvent the wheels. They should collectively strengthen Amotekun as the region’s existing security outfit for effective performance in keeping the marauders out of the SW. The intruders are not difficult to identify physically and where they usually reside in the forest reserves. Amotekun must go after the terrorists and once they are discovered, they should be “evacuated and sent back” (immediately). The forest reserves should not be residential abode for vagabonds. The Yoruba says, “oju ni alakan fi nso ori,” and according to another common arphorism in the region, always being alert is the medicine accustomed to the elders “Ifura l’ogun agba.” Or else, the region will be caught napping. You gave a series of incidents in your article to convince readers and the governments that insecurity in the SW is real and escalating. The governments of the region must act swiftly to repel the deadly marauders. No apologies! No excuse! To quote you: “Reclaiming the forests is vital to seeing tomorrow. Those who want to witness tomorrow don’t leave their forests to foreigners.” It is an infallible statement. Yacoob Abiodun 0810 350 1024

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