Prime News Ghana

'I've never forgiven Luis Suarez' - Mahama

By Vincent Ashitey
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Ghana's former President John Dramani Mahama has opened up on his difficulty to forgive Uruguay's Luis Suarez who denied the Black Stars a semi-final place during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The 63-year-old made this revelation when the ex-Black Stars captain Asamoah Gyan invited him for his upcoming book launch titled ‘Legyandary’ on April 30.

READ ALSO: 'It's payback time' - Ghanaians react to Black Stars World Cup Group H draw with Uruguay

“2010 was our opportunity but you know what Suarez did. We know that sometimes legends miss penalties,” Mahama said.

“It broke the heart of all of Africa and I’ve never forgiven Suarez for what he did but we put it behind us. We’ve done quite well."

In a dramatic event of the World Cup quarter-final in Johannesburg in July 2010 Uruguay beat Ghana on penalties to reach the semi-finals.

The quarter-final went to extra time and in the final minute of the added half-hour, Suarez, of Uruguay, standing on his own goalline, kept out a header from Ghana's Dominic Adiyiah with his hand.

Suarez was dismissed, only for Gyan to strike the bar with the resultant penalty, the last kick of the game.

The tie then went into a shoot-out, and though Gyan was brave enough to take Ghana's first penalty and score, just moments after the miss that could have put his team through, his colleagues were not as composed and the last African side went out.

After missing out on the last edition of the Mundial in Russia in 2018, Ghana have made a return to the global showpiece that will be held in Qatar later this year.

Ghana are in Group H alongside, Portugal, Uruguay, and South Korea.