By McGeorge Mbare
Former Liverpool and England player Jamie Carragher has incurred the wrath of the Africa Cup of Nations enthusiasts after suggesting that the competition is not a major tournament.
Carragher made unwelcomed comments pertaining the AFCON tournament while discussing the Egyptian star Mohammed Salah ‘s future Ballon D’or fate on Sky sports which invited massive criticism from African legends such as former Egyptian skipper Ahmed Hasan and others.
“I think the problem is he (Salah) is with Egypt, he probably is not playing in major tournament as such or maybe got a great chance of winning it, I think it’s either the champions league or the major tournament,” Jamie Carragher stated.
These remarks has riled many legends with the competition at heart for including former Egyptian skipper Hassan.
The four time AFCON winner, Hassan has publicly dismissed Carragher ‘s remarks. Hassan pointed out that Carragher has made racist claims.
“I’m astonished and deeply disappointed by the statement made by Jamie Carragher in which he downplayed AFCON. I believe his remarks are racist and should never have come from a footballer, I would like to clarify that to Carragher that the African continent consists of 54 countries, more than the number of countries in Europe. It’s landmarks exceeds 30 million square kilometers which is three times the size of Europe, and it’s population is approximately 1.5 billion people nearly twice the population of Europe,” Hassan stated.
Former Algeria international Adlene Guadioura also responded to Carragher ‘s remarks by sharing the image of Algeria ‘a nationwide celebration after winning the 2019 AFCON.
“ Jamie, AFCON is major, AFCON is big, you never lived this(the proud moments),” Guadioura stated.
In recent years,former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klop once made a dismissive comment about the prestigious tournament just like Jamie Carragher.