‘Vindication is in the womb of time’ and such Jojo Wollacott kept holding on, waited, and finally got a bid for it.
“How can a fourth-tier goalkeeper be invited to the Black Stars?” was the exact question chorused by virtually every Ghanaian when Joseph Wollacott was handed his first Black Stars call up in November 2021.
Ghana had lost its first-choice goalkeeper and second deputy skipper, Richard Ofori to injury. Long-standing deputy, Lawrence Ati-Zigi had not shown enough promise and so there was a void in the Black Stars starting eleven.
With a series of qualification matches on the horizon, an immediate replacement was therefore needed. In came a certain Jojo Wollacott!
The announcement of Jojo Wollacott as one of three goalkeepers invited for the match against Zimbabwe birthed a set of vile campaigns and wild allegations of corruption and favouritism against the coaches and the FA.
“In place of Ofori there was no one to be in post than a fourth-tier goalkeeper, Jojo Wollacott?” Many Ghanaians murmured in disapproval.
Playing in the English fourth Division might have felt like a crime for the Bristol-born Ghanaian at that point.
The despondency of many Ghanaians against Wollacott went a notch high when he was named in the starting team to face Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is respectfully a mismatch for Ghana, therefore, despite showing signs of a good goalkeeper, it was always going to be ‘it’s Zimbabwe’. He even failed to keep a clean sheet as Ghana won 3-1.
His first clean sheet landed in the second leg when Ghana won 1-0 in Harare.
Fast forward, he played in the remaining two games helping Ghana to qualify for the playoffs. He ended the group stage with two clean sheets in four games.
AFCON tournament was fast approaching and with Ofori’s long term miss, Wollacott was the number one pick for the technical team.
Unfortunately, the Black Stars had a disastrous performance at the AFCON, exiting from the group stage with no wins, conceding 5 goals in three games.
Every goal the team conceded was made to seem like a Wollocott clanger when in actual fact, he had little to nothing to do about it. People felt right about the Swindon Town man not being up to a ‘Black Stars standard’.
After the AFCON, his criticism became louder. He was chastised, lambasted and vilified but he found light at the end of the tunnel and got a deserved vindication.
Ghana was paired with Nigeria in the World Cup playoff scheduled for March 25 and March 29.
Richard Ofori made his injury return to the squad for the playoff. Now, the safest pair of hands has arrived, a tried and tested goalkeeper for the Black Stars, Ghanaians can finally gather some belief in the goalkeeping department.
But to their surprise, Wollacott got the nod to be in post for the two legs and this time repaid the trust of the new technical team led by Otto Addo.
‘A Wollacott’ against a Nigerian attack who had scored 55 goals in 133 games? many wondered.
In the first leg, he had less work to do but he pulled a magnificent stop to deny Moses Simons from scoring what would be a vital away goal for the Super Eagles in Kumasi.
The match ended goalless, clean sheet bagged against a potent attacking trio of Samuel Chukuwueze, Simon Moses, and Victor Osimhen.
He earned the spot again in the second leg and gave an even better performance. The Black Stars needed a scoring draw to qualify and they scored an early goal.
With close to 60,000 fans and an entire Nigerian population of over 200 million demanding a win from the Super Eagles at the Abiola Stadium, Ghana had their backs against the wall in most parts of the game.
In such situations, no matter how strong the defense line is, it will be breached at some moment and that is where goalkeepers need to stand out, exactly what Wollacott did.
Nigeria duly got the equaliser from the spot and had to go for the kill. But ‘fourth tier goalkeeper’ took Ghana’s qualification personally.
He kept Ghana’s hopes alive on so many occasions but the one save Ghanaians will never forget was him bravely stepping out of his post to palm away Leon Balogun’s header from a freekick.
That was a moment of relief for every Ghanaian because that ball was going in but Jojo Wollacott said ‘not today’.
The game ended one-all and the Black Stars grabbed the qualification. It was no surprise that his teammates run to celebrate with him because he was the hero.
If Wollacott needed a reminder of how his popularity has soared, then the loud cheers to his name at the presidency when the “gallant Black Stars” team visited the seat of government after returning from Abuja with a ticket to Qatar 2022, should be enough to serve notice that he has finally been accepted into the good books of Ghanaians.
Black Stars goalkeeper, Jojo Wollacott