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finale, given that I cut my tour of duty the moment our boys were knocked out in the group stages.
Back in ’98, I spent a month in Burkina Faso, covering a Nations Cup that was still taboo territory for the Warriors, watching Benni McCarthy announcing his arrival on the big scene with a bang and then seeing Egypt being crowned champions of Africa.
McCarthy was just 20, an unheralded fresh-faced forward just out of his teenage zone, when he arrived in Burkina Faso as the spearhead of the Bafana Bafana attack, but by the end of the tourney, he had become one of the continent’s most recognisable footballers.
Seven goals, in his debut Nations Cup, including four against Namibia in a 4-1 victory, and two against DRC that won the semi-final, powered Bafana Bafana into the final and a chance to defend a crown they had won on home soil two years earlier.
Sadly, there was no fairytale ending to Benni’s show as the Pharaohs ambushed them in the grand finale and took the trophy to Cairo — for the first time in a dozen years — but Bafana Bafana’s brave run, in difficult and punishing conditions in West Africa, won them a lot of admirers.
As fate might have it, both South Africa and Burkina Faso feature prominently in the second Nations Cup grand finale that I will cover tomorrow at the National Stadium in Johannesburg after the Burkinabe defied the odds to touch heavens for the first time in their history.
The Stallions’ magical run into the Nations Cup final has, inevitably, brought back a flood of memories about the events that unfolded in Burkina Faso, 15 years ago, when I was one of the thousands of people that the little West African nation hosted for a month.
It was quite an adventure and by the end of it all we could say ‘bonjour, for good morning’, ‘bon après-midi for good afternoon’, ‘bonsoir for good evening’, ‘bonjour, je m’appelle Rob’ for ‘hello, my name is Rob’, ‘tres bien, merci for fine, thanks’ and, when we finally left, we all could said ‘au revoir.’
They are a small nation, just like us, of 15 million people and, just like us, they used to have another name in the past, Upper Volta and, just like us, they were renamed in the ‘80s when the then president, Thomas Sankara, chose the name Burkina Faso.
It’s a combination of two words from the dominant tribes in the country, the Moore and Dioula, with Burkina, derived from the Moore, standing for ‘Men of Integrity’ and Faso, derived from the Dioula, standing for ‘Land of Honesty People.”
So, in loose translation, the Burkinabe are ‘Men of integrity who live in the land of honesty people.’
They are a very poor people, the United Nations ranks Burkina Faso as the third poorest nation in the world, they are landlocked and, just like us, they have a big migrant working population in neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire and these workers, just like our brothers and sisters who live and work in South Africa, have been subjected to abuse by their hosts.
But, some things, as they say, never change.
Then, just like now, Burkina Faso enjoyed a memorable run that was ended by Egypt in the semi-finals, quite an achievement for the hosts then, and I still recall an entire nation coming to a standstill, whenever the Stallions were playing, and the people and their team became one unit.
They won together, drew together, with sellout crowds of 50 000 at every match the hosts played, and even when the end finally came, the team and its people faced defeat as a unit, as a family, and their third-place play-off, against DRC, was an eight-goal thriller with the Burkinabe finally losing the penalty shootout lottery.
Fast forward 15 years, and on the sandy pitch of the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Wednesday night, in the biggest game of their history, the Burkinabe finally had fate smiling down on them as they triumphed in a penalty shootout lottery that elbowed Ghana out of the tournament.
Millions of delirious Burkinabes poured out of the streets on Wednesday night as the magical power of football charmed an entire nation and, for a moment, they could afford to forget their daily grind, just to survive, in a country where the average income, per capita, is US$300, 80 percent of people live on subsistence agriculture and only a small fraction is directly involved in industry and commercial services.
The world loves the underdog and there were certainly more fans around the globe, in the Burkina Faso corner on Wednesday night, than those who were backing the Black Stars of Ghana and, to their eternal credit, the Stallions responded to the challenge and played with both a swagger, and professional focus, which was worthy the occasion to deservedly emerge triumphant.
Tunisian referee, Slim Jedidi, made a number of diabolical calls, all of them against Burkina Faso, and at times it was so disgusting one would be forgiven to believe that this was being stage-managed, by an invisible hand, so that we get a dream Ghana/Nigeria final tomorrow, the heavyweight showdown that Caf probably wanted to close a Nations Cup that was an eyesore, when it started, but which is ending with a bang.
That Jedidi was condemned by the Caf leaders, shortly after the game, and immediately sent home, showed the extent of the injustice that he inflicted on the brave Burkinabe and the more diabolical the decisions, the better the Burkinabe played and the more fans that they pulled into their corner.
Paul Put, A Tainted Past, A Bright Future?
One of the biggest influences, which have transformed the Burkinabe into a competitive force, has to be Paul Put, the Belgian coach who has now been in charge of the Stallions for 12 months after four years spent as coach of The Gambia.
When he was appointed in March last year, he inherited a team that was low on morale, which had been humiliated at the 2012 Nations Cup finals where they had lost all their three Group B games against Angola (1-2); Cote d’Ivoire (0-2) and Sudan (1-2) to finish bottom of the group without a point to their credit.
Burkina Faso were joint second worst-performing team, at the 2012 Nations Cup finals, alongside Niger, with a similar goal difference of minus four, with no points on board, while Botswana, who also lost all their three group games, were the worst performing team with a goal difference of minus seven.
In a period of less than a dozen years, Put has transformed the Stallions from a group of players, who looked hopelessly out of depth at the Nations Cup last year, to one that now stands just 90 minutes away from winning the biggest prize in African football.
The Belgian has turned himself into a hero in Burkina Faso, no matter what happens tomorrow, with the way he has taken the Stallions to virgin heights previously untouched, and on Wednesday he said his work has caught the interest of people and journalists in his home country.
“Now everybody in Belgium is turning, everybody is calling me,” he told journalists. “Radio stations, television programmes. I am still the same Paul Put as before.”
But why the sudden interest in Paul?
Well, it’s a complicated story because Belgium, until now, had turned its back on the coach, who still faces the possibility of a criminal prosecution in his home country, following the match-fixing scandal that exploded in the country’s top-flight league in the 2004/05 season.
Back then, Paul was coach of Belgian club Lierse, which was implicated in fixing games allegedly for the benefits of an Asian betting syndicate run by a Chinese businessman, Ye Zheyung, who denies the charges.
Allegations are that Lierse twice unexpectedly fielded reserve teams in league matches in 2005, seemingly as part of a match-fixing ring, so that they could lose and benefit their Asian kingpin and Paul was made the fall guy of the scandal and banned by the Belgian Football Federation for three years in 2008.
Lierse were demoted into Division Three and an international arrest warrant was issued for Ye, who came to Belgium, denied the charges and was allowed to return home to China.
Fifa didn’t endorse the ban imposed by the Belgium Football Federation and while Paul was an outcast in his home country, he was free to coach elsewhere and he arrived in Gabon and, after a solid but unspectacular reign, he left and was hired by Burkina Faso last year.
The criminal case is not expected to start until 2015.
Interestingly, Paul doesn’t deny that he was part of a match-fixing ring and, on the eve of his team’s match against Ghana, he told journalists that he was just a pawn in a big men’s game.
“This is not a decision of a coach and a player. It is a whole team. If you want to fix a game you don’t need 12 players. If you want to fix a game you can do it with one. That’s what I don’t understand — people didn’t speak of the reality,” he said this week.
“It was not by our will. I am not a manager — just a coach. I am forced to listen to people above me. I was forced but ‘fixing games’ are big words. The team at that moment had nothing. It was in a very bad condition. There was no hope, no money, nothing.
“It was a decision of the federation (to ban him), but they always have to take an example. They wanted an example for the whole world. There was more than 40 people (involved) and I say the whole of Belgium football was sick at that time. It was a crazy story about match-fixing when the other teams did the same.
“I have been threatened by the mafia. My child was not safe. They have been threatening me with weapons and things like that. It’s not nice to talk about these things but it’s the reality. I accepted the ban because Fifa said I could work, so I didn’t make any trouble in Belgium.”
Tomorrow, Paul Put stands on the threshold of greatness, and has a chance to open a new chapter for Belgian coaches at a time when a battery of Belgian players — Eden Hazard, Marouane Fellani, Romelu Lukaku, Vincent Kompany, Thomas Vermaelen, Jan Vertonghen, Moussa Dembele and Kevin Mirallas — are lighting up world football.

Igwe Keshi Eyes Greatness

The only link between Stephen Keshi and Paul Put is that the Nigerian coach spent a long time, of his playing career, holed up in Belgium where he played for Lokeren and Anderlecht, and was there around the same time that Moses Chunga and Kalusha Bwalya were some of the African imports.
Keshi had a lengthy career and was 38 when he officially retired, at the turn of the millennium, playing for Perlis FA in Malaysia.
He was 32-years-old and unattached, when the ’94 Nations Cup got underway in Tunisia, but coach Clemens Westerhof decided he needed his experience and, although battling injury during the tournament, he managed to lead the Super Eagles to success as they beat Zambia 2-1 in the final.
Emmanuel Amunike, the forward who was 24 at the Nations Cup in Tunisia, was the hero of that final with a double strike that won Nigeria the trophy.
Emmanuel Emenike, the powerful 25-year-old Spartak Moscow forward, has been the hero of the Super Eagles campaign so far, with his goals oiling the machine, and we could have two strikers, with virtual identities in terms of their names, powering Nigeria to glory — almost 20 years apart.
Keshi could become only the second man, in the history of the Nations Cup, to win the tournament both as coach and player, following the footsteps of legendary Egyptian, El Gohary, who won as a player in ’59 and was coach when the Pharaohs won the title in Burkina Faso in ’98.
Sadly, El Gohary died three months ago in Jordan. Keshi has always been a strong advocate of the importance of local coaches, for African national teams, and he is true to his principles, believing names and reputations don’t necessarily guarantee success, and left out Obafemi Martins and Peter Odemwingie from the trip to South Africa.
Instead, he brought 17 players who were breaking their Nations Cup virginity in South Africa and a host of home-based players, something that was taboo in Nigeria in the past.
In the past three weeks, his boys have restored the reputation of the Super Eagles, who were now being mocked as Super Chickens, taken Nigeria back to the very top table of African football and stands just 90 minutes away from being crowned champion again.
It’s hard to hate Keshi, even though he as an army of critics in his home media, because he comes across as the perfect football personality — the captain with the film-star good looks who led his country to greatness as a player and who now stands on the threshold of making history as a coach.
He says the ’94 squad took five years to build. In contrast his 2003 squad took just five weeks to build. The Super Eagles aren’t the perfect article, he concedes, but they are taking huge strides forward and, just as well, it was about time.
Cameroon made the breakthrough, for African football, at the ’90 World Cup in Italy but, powered by a 40-year-old dancing master called Roger Milla, they were largely a fluke than the genuine article and that they suffered a six-goal humiliation, against Russia at the next World Cup in the United States, confirmed that.
Nigeria was the country that brought respectability to African football, when Kanu and company touched the heavens in the Atlanta sunshine in the United States and won gold at the Olympics, two years after the Super Eagles had come within seconds of eliminating Italy, at the ’94 World Cup, before a combination of Roberto Baggio’s magic, and some controversial officiating, ended their dream.
That the Azzurri were good enough to go all the way to the final, and lose to Brazil on penalties, put into context the strength of that Super Eagles’ team.
When the Nations Cup was last held in South Africa, in ’96, Nigeria were the holders but a diplomatic row between Abuja and Pretoria resulted in Sani Abacha ordering his men not to go and defend their title in the Rainbow Nation and hosts, Bafana Bafana, triumphed.
It has taken 13 years for the Nigerians to get a chance to lift the Nations Cup, on South African soil, and in Steve Keshi, they have a coach who knows what is needed to win it and in Emmanuel Emenike, they have a forward who revokes memories of a golden past, 19 years ago, when Emmanuel Emunike swept them to glory.

The Super Eagles’ Link With Warriors
It’s easy to forget now, as the Super Eagles stand on the threshold of success, that the Nigerian Football Federation once hired Tom Saintfiet last year to become the man with overall charge in terms of the national teams.
The recruitment of Saintfiet, as was the case when he suddenly emerged at Harare International Airport and was ferried by a private taxi to his hotel where he inked a deal to become the Warriors’ coach, was fraught with irregularities.
Just as well, the Nigerians decided it wasn’t in their best interests to hire Saintfiet and Keshi, who was on the verge of leaving his post because of the shadowy recruitment of the Belgian, then chose to stay and the revival of the Super Eagles was well and truly under way. Our new coach Klaus Dieter-Pagels took charge of his first international game on Wednesday, predictably against Botswana, and inspired his Warriors to a come-from-behind 2-1 win.
In a country that still carries fond memories of its unforgettable dance with another German coach, Reinhard Fabisch who created his immortal Dream Team, Pagels’ arrival has sparked interest in the Warriors and his focus, to invest in youthful players, appears to be the right route.
For him to choose Denver Mukamba as his skipper was the biggest statement that he made of his vision, to put everything into the hands of the youthful players, and the challenge is on the boys to rise to the challenge.
For him to invest his trust in Washington Arubi and give him the captaincy, in his comeback game after a period in the wilderness when he was largely considered an outcast, was another huge statement that he is ready to bury the ghost of the past and chart a new course for this team.
Our boys might have struggled to adjust to the formation of playing with three defenders but there is time to get it right and, crucially, Pagels should also get the right men for the right roles and on Wednesday he learnt one or two things.
What I liked most about him was this fatherly touch that he showed to his players, making them feel loved, making them feel important, making them feel that this was one family, and the way he hugged Khama Billiat, when he came off, was telling.
There are no guarantees that Pagels’ project will be a success but an investment, based on youth, always has a promise for a better tomorrow.
A little muscle added to our back and a little touch of experience and adventure in midfield and you get a feeling this could be an exciting team but it’s too early to make a judgment and the best option right now is to support Pagels’ project because it’s not his personal crusade but a national assignment.
Yes, you also have to give credit to the guys at Zifa, Cuthbert Dube and company, for getting it right to organise a friendly international on a Fifa day for such a match.
Maybe, just maybe, we could be taking the first steps of a crawl that will explode into a full sprint.
In an era where even Burkina Faso can compete for the Nations Cup title, who are we to suggest that our Warriors cannot rise to become a force?
To God Be The Glory!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
oooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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