NOTWITHSTANDING his sensitive contribution to the erectile dysfunction debate, Pele has never been one for the telling insight. It's probably unreasonable to expect him to be. Just because you were once a 17-year-old who flicked the ball over your shoulder, laughed cheekily at some statuesque Swedes and volleyed the ball into the net in a World Cup final doesn't mean that every casual comment should be treated as a pronouncement from the Oracle at Delphi.
One of Pele's most-quoted epithets is the suggestion that an African nation will win the World Cup by 2010. Time's inexorable progress has distilled that down to the prediction that an African nation will win the next World Cup.
It remains unlike
ly, although the 2010 tournament may be the continent's only chance of claiming the trophy, despite the seemingly ceaseless supply of great African players. This could be the only time Africa gets to host a World Cup. If even a small percentage of the horror stories about crime and violence in South Africa prove true in 2010, it's unlikely Africa will see another World Cup before the ice caps melt and turn the continent into a blistering annex of the sun.
The Africa Cup of Nations has become a vital dress rehearsal for teams to prove their credibility as genuine challengers. Although most teams in the competition include at least one world-class player, it is difficult to see many that have the makings of a formidable all-round outfit.
The most obvious exception is the host nation, Ghana. The last African survivors at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Ghana, four times winners of the Cup, carry considerable expectation into this tournament, and the World Cup in two years' time. Yesterday's tricky opening fixture in Accra against Guinea would have been viewed with interest well beyond Africa. The view is that if any African nation can become a consistently powerful competitor on the world stage it will be Ghana.
Even without their injured captain and one-time Celtic target, midfielder Stephen Appiah, this is an exciting team. Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien, Africa's most expensive footballer, has strong claims to be also the best African footballer around. He will form an impressive midfield partnership with Portsmouth's Sulley Muntari.
With Muntari reclaiming his preferred position in central midfield – from where he scored the winning goal against Guinea last night – coach Claude Le Roy has created an expedient vacancy on the left wing for the 18-year-old Dede Ayew, the son of the former Ghana captain Abedi Pele, an iconic figure in Ghanaian football.
Another key addition to the team could be the Celta Vigo centre-forward Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, a belated arrival after Fifa ruled he wasn't a Dutchman, despite playing for Holland, the nation of his birth, at youth and under-21 level.
All the likely challengers to Ghana have assorted question marks around them. Ivory Coast, blessed with the genius of Didier Drogba and the resilience of Kolo Toure, need to show they have a team worthy of those illustrious individuals. Senegal have similarly slipped a little since their prodigious run to the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt, the holders, are saddled with the curse that seems to afflict the North Africans when they have to travel south of the Sahara. Maybe you can't get a decent couscous.
Nigeria, one of Africa's strongest economies and a traditional football powerhouse, should be among the contenders, but there are the usual caveats. The Nigerian FA paid a visit to England to thrash out an incentive deal with senior players, but there is always the possibility of player discontent around any Nigerian team. There is also the question of the coach and a man familiar to all of Scotland, a certain Berti Vogts.
Scots might like to think Vogts is paying the Victorian penance of being banished to what was then known as the Dark Continent after committing something unspeakable in Europe. In truth, the Nigerian FA hired him after perusing a curriculum vitae which presumably spun the Scotland years as an extended trout-fishing holiday. With a spine of Joseph Yobo, Mikel John Obi and Obafemi Martins, Nigeria should be among the favourites. With Vogts, though, there is always the possibility that Martins will be on the wing, Yobo in midfield and the Chelsea midfielder with the interchangeable names on the bench.
South Africa, a nation in a state of escalating panic about their imminent hosting job, are concentrating more on their stadia than their team, but will need a steady performance to prove they will not embarrass themselves in two years' time.
The high-profile coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has made his job difficult by leaving out the nation's likeliest goalscorer Benni McCarthy. In his absence, the forward Excellent Walaza might find it difficult not to be renamed Average or Unexceptional.
The full article contains 834 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
