Bernard Mensah: The unsolved retirement mystery
On Sunday,8, November 2020, I had just come back from a spirited church service with a message centered on “Victory through the blood of Jesus”, only to receive a notification from my phone.
I then decided to go through my notifications ending up on Twitter, with an announcement from, Blackstars midfielder, Bernard Mensah announcing his early retirement from national team duties.
Initially, I was struck by the tweet from his Twitter handle, I didn’t know what to make of this development.
“I have decided to take a break from the national team until further notice. I want to concentrate on my career for now. Thanks to all Ghanaians for their support,”
I began asking myself a series of questions, why would a budding potential retire from national team duties at the prime stage of his career,was it borne out of incessant injury situations, was he forced to make this untimely decision by a higher power/authority, what could justify a decision of this magnitude.
Ghana’s Stephen Appiah once said, “If out of the 24 million people [the population of Ghana] you have been selected to be among 11 players to represent the country, you should see that as an opportunity and not the time to bluff your country”. I then ask myself if Mensah knew this?
With time, I assimilated the tweet beginning to recall notable players(Eric Cantona, Marco Van Basten, Fabrice Muamba, Emmanuel Frimpong, Patrick Kluivert, Frank Rijkaard) just to name a few, who had retired from active duties with their national teams at prime ages for varied reasons, injuries playing a dominant role in most of their decision-making but not Mensah’s.
It remains unknown why Akunnor didn’t include him in the upcoming double Afcon qualifiers against Sudan after making a full recovery from the coronavirus he contracted during Ghana’s friendly encounter against Mali and Qatar in Turkey.
The 26-year-old has come under intense scrutiny from a section of Besiktas fans for failing to establish himself as a mainstay since he joined the club from Kayserispor on loan making eight appearances and scoring a goal.
Mensah, 26, made his intentional debut with the Blackstars on 8 June, 2015 some five years ago in 1-0 win over Togo in an international friendly played in Accra.
Mensah has played for sides like Vitoria de Guimaraes,Getafe, Kayserispor and now Besiktas.
Hopefully, this decision on the part of Bernard Mensah doesn’t go a long way to harm him or his career.
All the best to one of Ghana’s creative midfielders who failed to showcase what he had with us.
