<<Print>>

In the Eddie Murphy’s 1988 hit comedy movie, ‘Coming to America’, the young African Prince left home in search of a wife in America with his friend and aide, Arsenio Hall.

After landing in America, he started his search for his bride in night clubs and pubs around New York – Queens. He left all these pubs disappointed since he couldn’t find what he wanted so he sought advice from an elderly African immigrant. This is the conversation that ensued between them:

Eddie Murphy: Sir, where can I go to find nice women here? We have been to every bar in Queens.

Mr. Clarence: Well son you messed up. You can’t go to any bar to find nice women. You have to go to a quiet place like library-there’s a good woman there or a church…

This is the trajectory of how Ghanaian footballers go in search of their life partners who in the end become pains in their neck.

Is it my imagination? Or does every Black Stars player want to marry a fair unemployed model?

Marriage is an institution from God and as it is widely believed, ‘beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’ and so has it been with players of the Black Stars.

There are only a few criteria laid down for a lady to qualify to be a girlfriend or wife of a Black Stars player;

1. You must be ‘fair coloured’

2. You must be a regular visitor of night clubs

3. You must be a model

4. You must be ready to spend money without working to add any.

The big question is this; why are our Black Stars players not interested in marrying corporate/career women like doctors, lawyers, teachers, journalists, bankers, administrators and nurses among others?

It is quite clear that our footballers mostly find their wives where they spend most of their time when they are on vacation or when they are playing abroad – Night clubs and pub.

Most of these ladies are jobless, claim to be models and feed off the sweat of our hardworking footballers as well as some rich old men so that their insatiability could be met to a certain point. These ladies are always out there in these night clubs snarling like hungry lions and would pounce on their ‘prey’ with seductive and amorous approaches which like the Biblical Sampson, our footballers easily crumble to.

Once you marry such a lady, her lifestyle and expenditure will surely upsurge because she knows her husband is a ‘rich’ footballer. These ladies travel in and out of the country as if they are plying the Circle to Kaneshie route. They resort to expensive holidays in Dubai and the Bahamas. They ride in the latest cars and wear the most expensive clothes and jewelries which they mostly flaunt on Instagram.

When our dear footballers end their careers and are longer earning those huge weekly and monthly wages, they certainly can’t continually afford the expensive lifestyle of their wives and that is when trouble starts brewing. The ladies start devising ways of getting their fair share of the property and the only avenue that crosses their minds is a divorce.

Let’s look at how the marriages of some of our ex-footballers ended: John Mensah, Nii Odartey Lamptey and Arthur Moses- just to mention a few.

Sometimes one is tempted to say that it serves them right but as a well meaning friend, I certainly can’t wish that on them.

It is high time our footballers stopped looking at women based solely on complexion and consider settling down and raising their families with women who are brought up from home and not houses. Women who will love them for who they are and not for what they are.

It will excite me to see one prominent footballer’s total departure from the norm by getting married to a modest doctor, lawyer, teacher, nurse or a banker. Ladies who can make homes and take proper care of your children instead of just globe-trotting and gallivanting around. Ladies who will manage the lives and property of their footballer husbands and also work to support the home.

I may not be rich; I may not have all the wisdom in the world; but at least I can offer some free invaluable advice.