Big or small, football tournaments have always served as a platform for players to shoot into global stardom status. Players who, with all due respect had relatively smaller global reputations see their reputations and fame go up the roof with their performances in the World Cup.
There is the story of how Cannavaro went from an Italian football great to a global football icon. Mesut Ozil used the 2010 World Cup to establish himself as the world’s best assist provider and it took just four games at the 2014 World Cup for James Rodriguez to secure a big-money move to Real Madrid from AS Monaco.
Tournaments always produced stars who by virtue of their performances earn big career moves and become synonymous with the particular tournaments.
We are just ten days into the 2022 World Cup and it looks increasingly likely that there will be another revelation from this tournament.
Whiles established names like Messi, Mbappe and Ronaldo have as usual registered headline-grabbing moments, the new entries to the World Cup folklore are two players with Ghanaian and Dutch connections.
The two, who play for Ajax and PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch Eredivise are making giant moves with their performances for their respective countries. It is not as though they were not good players heading into the tournament but their displays so far have seen them move from being linked with Everton and Leeds United to Barcelona and Manchester United.
Ghana’s Mohammed Kudus and Netherlands’ Cody Gakpo are the two players in the discussion here. With his two goals against South Korea, Mohammed Kudus made history as the first Ghanaian to score two goals in a World Cup game and is now being reported by transfer experts as a target for Barcelona, Madrid, Arsenal and Liverpool.
In a space of ten days and just two matchdays, the 22-year-old who was struggling for game time at Ajax in the early part of the season has become a global football sensation and dominating major headlines of world-acclaimed media houses and reporters.
His goals aside, Kudus has been great with his defensive work, passes, gliding runs, and link-up play with Ghana’s forward line. A natural number 10, Kudus knows how to thread passes and cut defenses open.
Cody Gakpo, as confirmed by former Ghana coach, CK Akonnor is another player who could have represented Ghana instead of the Netherlands.
He is of a Dutch mother and a Ghanaian father but opted to represent his mother’s country despite efforts by Ghana to woo him
His soaring reputation has dramatically increased following his three goals in his opening three games of the tournament. In the Netherlands’ three group games against Qatar, Senegal and Ecuador, Gakpo found the back of the net on all occasions and his blistering runs from the flanks have made him a transfer pick for clubs who according to the reliable Fabrizio Romano are now jostling for his signature.
He has gone from a Leeds United target to a player destined to play for any of the top three teams in Europe’s top five leagues.
Author: Perez Erzoah Kwaw
Cody Gakpo and Mohammed Kudus