“When I was coming up, we had Michael Essien, Stephen Appiah, Sulley Muntari, and at a point it got to me. Players have come and gone. We had the Abedi Pele era, Stephen Appiah era, Michael Essien era, and the Asamoah Gyan era and now it looks like it’s Kudus’ era,” said Asamoah Gyan about who takes up the mantle in the Black Stars project.
Over the past few years, Mohamed Kudus has set himself aside in the quality bracket of Ghana football. It was easy to surmise just a year before the 2022 World Cup, that Kudus would become a key player in the Black Stars. Stepping over the line and becoming the go-to man for the team’s coaches for years to come.
So when he rose from anonymity to a national hero, many were not surprised. His skill set is second to none in our national pool but it is his timing to shine that has earned him the right as a torch bearer.
Success in life can be all about accurate timing.
Kudus has mastered that art and has quickly become the player the national team needs to be built around. That much is crystal clear. He’s graduated from a promising player to arguably Ghana’s key performer. He has risen from the fringes of Ghana’s team to indispensable status.
The 23-year-old’s numbers on the national side firm up his current status – an imperative choice. Many had only considered Kudus a creative engine who finds space for teammates and himself in advanced attacking positions.
But he has reinvented himself. He is not just a silky player any longer. He has a new dimension to his game – a goal-getter. His goalscoring form began in his last season at Ajax.
Under Alfred Schreuder in the Dutch league, Kudus stepped up in a false nine role and picked up eleven goals in the top flight. His tally in the UEFA Champions League was an impressive four goals in six group-stage matches. Those numbers will only get better after that breakthrough campaign.
Hence, the reason Ajax were so adamant about letting him leave for West Ham United. “I feel that if he stayed another year, the real top clubs would come for him,” former Ajax manager Maurice Steijn said, as quoted by De Telegraaf.
“If we become champions and he scores twenty goals, he might go for double. We’re trying to tell him that.”
Kudus’ time at West Ham further confirms why he is so valued in every team he plays for currently. The Right to Dream academy graduate has seven Premier League goals this season, four Europa League goals, one EFL Cup goal, and a further three goals in Europa League qualifying for Ajax before his move to the Hammers, as well as his five assists in all competitions.
No Ghanaian has these remarkable numbers across Europe’s top-flight leagues.
So when former captain of the Black Stars, Asamoah Gyan waxed lyrical about Kudus, it came as no shock. He is by definition, the superstar of the national team now – the poster boy.
“So far it’s obvious – Mohammed Kudus,” Gyan said when asked about who should be the poster boy for the Black Stars. “During my era, we had a lot of good players and eventually it got to my turn.
“At the moment, it’s Mohammed Kudus. He’s the only Ghanaian player performing well now in Europe and he is doing it in the Premier League.
“Even in Africa, he is the only one doing so well in Europe. So we have to just support him.”
Those were the words of the all-time leading goalscorer of the Black Stars and one of the greatest Ghanaian players. Not that Kudus needs these words to find confidence. His game is built around an inherent backing of himself. There’s a semblance of calmness and assurance in his game that only he can master in the current Black Stars team.
It is the nonchalant manner Kudus takes his game, that surprises many. Almost effortlessly, Kudus glides past players takes games by their horns, and drags his teams over the line. He has mastered this craft and shone for Ghana and West Ham.
Gyan’s words are profound but not new. It has been known among Ghana football fans that with kudus in Ghana match day squads, there’s a higher chance of securing a result.
He has become a player for the big moments. He demonstrated that in Ghana’s Africa Cup of Nations, group match against record-winners Egypt when he fired two goals in for Ghana. They proved decisive just as much as several of his national team goals have become.
There’s an influx of new talent around the Black Stars. Several of them have made a good name for themselves in European football. But it is the boy from Nima who still holds the torch.
It is the boy whose aspirations through the Right to Dream academy, have birthed a new era in the Black Stars.