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Mentality holds African teams back at World Cup - John Barnes
By Steve Vickers
BBC News, Harare
As football fans across Africa are hoping that one of their World Cup representatives can reach the semi-finals or even win the tournament in Brazil this year, Liverpool legend John Barnes believes that the mental aspect of the game is holding the continent back.
Barnes played at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups for England, won two league titles with Liverpool in 1988 and 1990 and went on to coach Jamaica's national team.
Now working as an analyst for African TV broadcaster SuperSport, he spends a lot of time in South Africa.
And Barnes thinks he knows why Pele's 1997 prediction that an African nation would win the World Cup before 2000 did not come true.
"What Pele saw was the physical attributes that African players have, but what he probably didn't take into consideration is the mentality necessary to win the World Cup," Barnes told BBC Sport on a visit to Zimbabwe
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/26647396
By Steve Vickers
BBC News, Harare
As football fans across Africa are hoping that one of their World Cup representatives can reach the semi-finals or even win the tournament in Brazil this year, Liverpool legend John Barnes believes that the mental aspect of the game is holding the continent back.
Barnes played at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups for England, won two league titles with Liverpool in 1988 and 1990 and went on to coach Jamaica's national team.
Now working as an analyst for African TV broadcaster SuperSport, he spends a lot of time in South Africa.
And Barnes thinks he knows why Pele's 1997 prediction that an African nation would win the World Cup before 2000 did not come true.
"What Pele saw was the physical attributes that African players have, but what he probably didn't take into consideration is the mentality necessary to win the World Cup," Barnes told BBC Sport on a visit to Zimbabwe
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/26647396