Ex-Pirates keeper keeps alive his hope of playing at the World Cup – Everything will go well

AmaZulu goalkeeper Richard Ofori is desperate to represent Ghana in the forthcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup to be hosted jointly by the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

The Black Stars are among the nine African nations that have secured automatic slots for the global competition.

The other eight teams that have qualified are Algeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast,   Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, and debutants Cape Verde.

The 31-year-old former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper has not been part of the national team for some time, owing to his struggles for gametime at Usuthu. Nevertheless, the bulky shot stopper is hoping to make Otto Addo's party for the tournament.

I am working hard

“Yeah I’m still playing; so I’m working hard and then focusing on my team at the moment. That’s what you need to do for you to be there, because you can’t sit on the bench, or you can’t sit and then just wake up and go,” Ofori told the media.

“So I’m working hard in my team to help my team in the league, and then the rest will take over. Recently, I haven’t spoken to the coach], but before, he used to call me, and he’s a good man, so he used to check up on his players. He hasn’t abandoned any player, but we focus more on the ones that they are playing, because the World Cup qualifiers were so intense.

“So sometimes you need to just congratulate them or say encouragement towards to them. And then we try to push the guys to do the work because irrespective of anything, we are Ghanaians and that’s the same goal that everyone must have because that’s the country where we are coming from.

“We need to support the team, and then we need to push the team in one direction. He’s a good man, and I know everything will be fine and everything will go well,” he concluded.