Wake Up,
Liberian Players!
Commentery
By Julu M. Johnson, Jr.
The transfer market has just opened in the big
leagues of Europe and the good news is that players have already
started making moves from old clubs to new ones. Those involved are
not only players with origins from the big footballing nations in
Europe, South America and Asia, but also our very ones in Africa.
What has drawn our attention to the transfer market is the fact that
our own Liberian players are not involved these days. This has
created a serious worry and a cause for concern because the absence
of Liberian players in bigger leagues has created a setback for our
national football team, the Lone Star, especially so as it bids to
qualify for major international competitions like the African Cup of
Nations and that of the FIFA World Cup.
Between 1990 and 2000, Liberian footballers were involved in moving
from one club to the other simply because of their splendid
performances at the time.
Nevertheless, as we speak, you will never hear that a club from
England, Spain, Italy, Germany or France has bought a Liberian
footballer.
The excuse should not be that players from Europe, South America or
even other African nations are better than ours. Otherwise, George
Weah would not have conquered the world by sweeping all the titles
available for a football player in 1995.
Indeed, there are good footballers with raw talents here in Liberia.
What should actually be affecting our current generation of players
is the lack of ambition on their part. They only interested in
moving to Indonesia and feel they have reached the zenith of world
football.
There is another bunch of Liberian footballers there in the United
States plying their trade in the United Soccer League (USL) and the
Major League Soccer (MLS). Last year, Chris Gbandi and Willis Forko
broke the jinx of complacency by abandoning the MLS and are now
playing clubs in Norway. Other players can do the same.
But the likes of Melvin Tarley, John Menyongar, Leo Gibson and
Melvin Tarley are still in the USA, apparently being too satisfied
with what they get there. This is not healthy for our game. They
should set the example for upcoming players to emulate.
Except for Theo Weeks last year, there is yet to be a player to have
left the local scene to play abroad. This is really a problem. Let
them set the stage for journalists to write about them.
Liberian players are therefore admonished to wake up from their
slumber and sell their God given talents to the world of football.
They should know that they are equally as good as the players from
Brazil, Italy, France, Argentina, Portugal, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana
and Germany. It is about time that they think big. This is the
wakeup call to our footballers.
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