Freelance sports journalist, Akosua Addai Amoo, writes about injured Black Princesses forward, Princella Adubea, and believes that in the context of the Anas Aremeyaw Anas investigations into football, the player will be the Princesses’ own “Number 12” when they play in the U-20 Women’s World Cup in France.
‘The Number 12’ may not ring a bell around the globe but in Ghana, ‘The Number 12’ in Ghana has become synonymous with the biggest football scandal in the history of the nation.
The investigative piece by undercover journalist, Anas Amereyaw Anas threw the country into a state of shock and started a chain reaction which has not yet ended.
Football in Ghana is on pause and the Government, with the help of FIFA and CAF, is trying to get some major changes in place to clean Ghana football.
To Anas ’The Number 12’ was a symbolism for the influence of other factors aside the 11 players a team fields on a pitch but the Black Princesses, the nation’s female U-20 team, can relate to the term.
We are not talking about corruption in the team’s set up.
Rather, the players will hope that their star forward, Princella Adubea, who will miss the Women’s U-20 World Cup in France in August, will be their 12th woman cheering from home.
She is out due to a serious knee injury but the rest of the team believes that they will be galvanised enough to make something of their time in France despite preparing in the current climate of no football in the country.
The Black Princesses were not spared from the fallout of the Anas tape with the team having to break camp after football was put on ‘hold’.
After 21 days of uncertainty, the ladies and technical team did not know if their dream of participating in the football mundial would not materialize.
But the trip to France must happen and the Princesses will have to see what they can achieve when they face France, Netherlands and New Zealand in their group games.
They will have to fight through these matches without Adubea.
She was the soul of the team during the qualifiers netting 10 goals for the Black Princesses to become the joint top scorer of the African U-20 Women’s World Cup qualifiers.
Unfortunately, the script did not go as planned as Princella’s dreams of dazzling at the world stage were cut short by an injury.
She is undoubtedly one of Ghana’s rising star in women’s football and she has the numbers to back this claim.
Princella has netted 38 goals for defending Women’s league champions, Ampem Darkoa in the last two seasons.
She was also the top scorer of the last seasons Women’s FA Cup.
The team will miss her laughter, her maturity on the pitch and her predatory instincts for goals; football’s most important element.
It was no surprise when the technical team led by head coach Yussif Basigi and six of her teammates paid her a visit.
The former captain is expected to go under the knife soon and hopefully make a good recovery.
Until she returns, though, the Black Princesses will put 11 players on the pitches in France to play and one in Ghana to push them through.
Their own ”Number 12″. A difference maker stationed off the pitch. A good influence. A Princess
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By: Akosua Addai Amoo/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
She is a freelance sports journalist
You can follow her @akosuaamoo on twitter
