WHEN LAWN Tennis giants Roger Federer and Serena Williams announced their retirement from the game around the same time in September 2022, Roger was described as the male “GOAT” of tennis, and Serena, the female “GOAT” of tennis. Obviously, the GOAT ascribed Federer and Williams is only an acronym bearing no relationship to that stubborn animal called goat. Nonetheless, it still made me uncomfortable.
So, before tackling the acronym GOAT, what is an acronym?
Acronym
An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word. Examples are:
LASER – Light Amplification (by the) Simulated Emission of Radiation
NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
BASS – Breman-Asikuma Secondary School
BHOBU – Bishop Herman Old Boys Union.
LIONS – Liberty, Intelligence (&) Our Nation’s Safety.
While some acronyms are short and crisp and easy to pronounce, others are not. For example, many years ago, I was told the acronym NKATOATECO, stood for Nkawie-Toase Technical College.
While some acronyms have been around for a long time, “GOAT” is a relatively new entrant into the world of acronyms.
‘GOAT’
The coinage/acronym GOAT stands for “Greatest of All Times.” So while Federer and Williams may be the male and female GOATS of tennis, Muhammad Ali is generally said to be the boxing GOAT.
Indeed, it is in reference to Ali that the acronym GOAT was born. In September 1992, Lonnie Ali, Muhammad Ali’s wife incorporated “G.O.A.T” as “Greatest of All Times” for her husband.
On 13th October 2022, it was announced that the football used in the 90-minutes quarter-final 1986 Football World Cup match in Mexico between Argentina and England would be auctioned on 26 November 2022 for about $US3million. Argentina won by 2-1, and went on to win the Cup beating West Germany 3-2 in the finals on 26th June 1986.
Iconic GOAT – Football
That football or “leather-globe” has become iconic mainly because, it was the ball Maradona controversially scored with his hand in a mid-air tussle with English goalkeeper Peter Shilton. When he admitted in later years that, he punched the ball past the goalkeeper into the net, he called it “the hand of God.” For that, Maradona is loved and hated in equal measure.
Indeed, another of football’s greatest, the English player Gary Lineker who won the “Golden Boot” for scoring six goals in the 1986 tournament, and who scored England’s consolation goal in that 1-2 loss to Argentina in Maradona’s “hand of God” match said, even though his off-field conduct with drugs and other misdemeanors were bad, “arguably, he is football’s greatest of all times.”
Lineker went on to share his admiration for Lionel Messi who is also Argentine. However, in terms of raw skill, he put Maradona ahead.
As for Referee Ali Bin Nasser of Tunisia who refereed the match, he stated that, he was blessed to have refereed a match which produced two of football’s greatest goals, one controversially with Maradona’s “hand of God”, the other classic after Maradona had beaten five English defenders in a row! It was subsequently described as the “goal of the century!”
Incidentally, together with my Finnish room-mate Yussi, we watched that great match on 22nd June 1986 from our room in Graduate School in Ottawa, Canada!
Pele who earlier helped Brazil win the world cup three times in 1958, 1962 and 1970 has often been described as the greatest of all times. Unfortunately, many football lovers were not born when he played.
Probably, who a “GOAT” is, is generational.
Animal Goat
In case you are wondering why I don’t like the live goat, this is the story. From my room as a young officer in the early 1970s waiting for my date on a Sunday afternoon, I thought I heard a gentle knock on my door. Smiling broadly, I opened the door only to see a billy-goat staring disrespectfully at me. The speed with which I chased it away would have filled Usain Bolt with admiration/envy!
My dislike for live-goats aside, I like it when they are transformed into light soup (aponkye nkrakra) or kebabs as my friend Adongo does so expertly at the Air Force Officers Mess, Accra.
‘GOATs’ Of Ghana
In the 1960s – 1970s perhaps up to 1982 when Ghana won the African Cup four times, the first African country to do so, we were called the “Brazil of Africa!” We saw great players like Aggrey-Fynn, Edward Acquah, Osei Kofi, goalkeeper Dodoo Ankrah etc whose names should have been etched in gold.
In athletics, then young L/Cpl Mike Ahey (now 82) won the 1962 Commonwealth Games long-jump gold medal in Perth, Australia, and a silver in the 110×4 yds relay.
In the 1966 Kingston, Jamaica Commonwealth Games, SF Allotey won gold in the 220yds. In the 110×4 yds relay, Ghana’s quartet of BK Mends, Ebenezer Charles Oko (ECO) Addy (now 82), James Aryee (JA) Addy and SF Allotey won gold beating host and favorites Jamaica.
In boxing, Eddie Blay won gold in the 1962 and 1966 Commonwealth Games, and a bronze in the 1964 Tokyo, Japan Olympic Games.
So, in the sporting field alone, there are many Ghanaian “GOATs.”
A question which is becoming more common by the day from foreign friends is, “Why do you Ghanaians not appreciate the achievements of fellow Ghanaians?”
One angrily said “you even go to the extent of denigrating the memory of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, ‘the African of the millennium’ whom the whole world respects?” He added, “history will not forgive you for touting mediocrity.”
To the infallible critics, remember Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote;
“What you are shouts so loudly in my ears, I cannot hear what you say!”
The Akan proverb “ahwene pa nkasa,” literally “quality beads don’t talk” summarises the fact that, quality/virtue needs no self-advertisement!
With all his faults including drug-addiction, Maradona is still a revered “icon” in Argentina!
Please, praise our own Ghanaian “GOATs!” Remember the saying, “for as you do unto others, so shall it be done unto you!”
I look forward to the acronym “GOAT” metamorphosing to “BOAT” (Best of All Times)
Leadership, lead!
Fellow Ghanaians, WAKE UP!
The writer is the former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya
BY Brig Gen Dan Frimpong (rtd)