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Skipper of the
Ghanaian national football team Michael Essien insists the Black Stars
will be going all out to enjoy their football as they have nothing to
lose at the World Cup in South Africa.

The Black Stars
will be competing at their second World Cup tournament following their
debut outing four years ago in Germany where they made it all the way
to the second round before losing to Brazil. They will be looking to
re-enact that feat this time around in South Africa where they will be
coming up against Germany, Australia and Serbia in the first round.

On paper, the Black
Stars have a realistic chance of advancing to the second round but
Essien isn’t solely thinking about that as he wants the team to have
fun in the process and give something back to underprivileged children
in the society.

Essien made this
assertion while declaring his support for the ‘1Goal: Education for all
project’, which is a project run by the Global Campaign for Education
and which is part of a large global education initiative.

Asked about his fondest World Cup memories, the Chelsea midfielder, who is an ambassador for the 1Goal Project said:

“The only thing I
remember was the last World Cup in Germany. It was our first ever World
Cup. We really had fun and it was a good experience for us and we are
all looking forward to going to South Africa and to enjoy our football
and maybe the kids can learn something from us.”

“Every country
knows how to play the game now so I don’t think there will be an easy
game out there. But like I said it is going to be fun and we’ll all go
out there and enjoy it,” he added.

Education for all

The 1Goal project,
which is backed by FIFA, seeks to get every child into school by 2015
by rallying support from footballers and fans across the world. The
campaign is backed by over 140 of the biggest names in football
including Super Eagles captain Nwankwo Kanu, John Utaka, Alessandro del
Piero, and Rio Ferdinand, as well as entertainment icons such as
Shakira and Kevin Spacey.

An estimated $16
billion a year is needed to make universal education a reality, but
currently only $4 billion is spent on primary education and 1GOAL is
aiming to use the first World Cup to be staged in Africa to help
actualize the United Nations’ target of ending poverty through
providing education for all.

“I think education
is the key to success. I was lucky growing up, my mum worked incredibly
hard to make sure me and my four sisters could get an education. She
did not get the chance to go to school but she gave us the
opportunity,” said Essien.

“It is great to have the World Cup for the first time in Africa. The
continent has been dreaming about it and now the World Cup is coming to
Africa. I think the 1Goal education project will be good for the kids
after the World Cup because we could see a lot more kids in school.”