In little over a fortnight, Ghana’s senior national team, Black Stars, will plunge into action in Cameroon, in search of a Golden Fleece that has been elusive for four decades.

Indeed, the last time the Stars clinched the African Cup of Nations coronet was in Tripoli, Libya, 1982. There, Ghana upstaged the host nation Libya at a nerve-jangling shoot-out, swaggering away a fourth unprecedented title (1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982).

Ever since, the Stars have glittered to the party at three Nations Cup finale (Senegal 1992, Angola 2010 and Equatorial Guinea 2015), but left with plenty anguish and pain – especially to Cote d’Ivoire (1992 and 2015) who won via penalties on both occasions.

Though they have not fared badly, concern of Ghanaians seem to be rooted in the final list of players to do battle in Cameroon from January 9 to February 6, 2022.

Head trainer of the Black Stars, Milovan Rajevac, on Tuesday presented his provisional list of 30 players to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) with many caught in a state of solicitude over who is going to make the final cut.

Ahead of that final slit of 23, the team is expected to start pitching tent in Doha, Qatar, where they would be engaged in a series of friendlies aimed at fine-tuning their rough edges and sharpening their arsenal for the nearly one-month absorbing tournament.

According to the Communications Director of the GFA, Henry Asante Twum, the Stars will face the Desert Foxes on January 5 in what will be their final game before heading off to Cameroon.

The exact identities of the first two opponents were not immediately revealed but Henry Twum noted that the Stars would play a yet-to-be-named club side on Tuesday, December 28, before taking on one of the Africa Cup of Nations qualified teams on Friday, January 1, 2022 in another friendly.”

It was further stated that “the Black Stars will depart Doha for Yaounde on Friday, January 7, 2022 to take on the rest of Africa at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. Rajevac, it is said, has until Friday, December 30, 2021 to submit his final squad for the tournament. With Covid-19 ravaging, many have also asked whether the provisional list of 30 is enough for the Doha camp.

Well, in Cameroon, the Stars – drawn against Morocco, Gabon and Comoros in Group C, will be seeking to end what will be a disconcerting 40-year wait for a continental title.

As said earlier, Ghanaians would be waiting with bated breath to see the identity of players who will make up the final 23. It is so important to them.  It is important to all who have the team at heart. They need players who are ready to fight wholeheartedly for the mission in Cameroon. They need to see players who are prepared to die on the pitch for the result rather than giving up out of exhaustion.

Indeed, the Cameroon mission is to bring back the Cup. Nothing else! And, that is the task given to Rajevac who has promised to put the smiles on the faces of Ghanaians.

US-based Ghanaian coach Robert Sackey, may also have hammered it right on the head when he called for the Ghana technical team to dash for players who would put the nation above all interest.

“We need players who have passion and willing to play for Ghana; they are the ones that must earn to right to the AFCON. Ghana needs a trophy, and this AFCON must be the right time to do so with the right players,” he asserted.

Having said that it is important, too, to acknowledge that admonition of a former President of the GFA, Lepowura Alhaji Jawula, who believes that breaking the embarrassing trophy hoodoo and Stygian silence, may probably go beyond player quality and team performance.

“No matter what, the fans are simply indispensable.  That’s why we need to have everybody on board and roll on like one big family.

“Indeed, the Stars mission in Cameroon will be feckless without the unflinching backing of Ghanaians.”

Many Ghanaians want the AFCON trophy more than anything else – and as the tournament roars off from January 9 to February 6, 2022, knees will go down earnestly praying for the end to the years of anguish and torment in search of the nation’s fifth continental Holy Grail.

By John Vigah