"Bernard Dong Bortey, the El Hadji Diouf of Ghana football." That was the answer that caught my attention when i asked my friends their conception about this talented Ghanaian footballer.
At that moment, i began to believe the saying that, if reputation precedes you, and in particularly one of a bad kind, then you may start to experience a struggle for social equality and the "they hate me" complex may begin to breed in the mind of the individual.
We often see many footballers trying to create a name for themselves in top leagues and these technically gifted professionals can often get rattled by the beastly force and physical nature of some football leagues, with fans often feeling betrayed and cheated by instances of bad-mouth, on and off the field controversies, issues of simulation, bad antics, feigning of injuries and many more.
And when these fans and the media contrive a reputation about a footballer, particularly, one of a bad kind, football pundits speak more about that footballer's defects, bitterness, distrust and also doubt abounds to the extent that even match officials who are to remain impartial in their dealings become blurred by that footballer's reputation.
Now, El Hadji Diouf is a Senegalese footballer who currently plays for Leeds United, and to be characterized with such an unpopular public figure who spat at a Celtic fan and banned from international football for four matches in 2004 for a verbal assault on referee Ali Bujsaim clearly tells me that Bernard Dong Bortey is a player penalised by reputation.
Bortey, despite being a clever, technically gifted player who had once become the lifeline of Accra Hearts Of Oak, with team mate, Charles Taylor, is irked by many opposing fans, greatly ridiculed by the media, loathed for his unwelcome gesticulations that gives football enthusiasts hours of material to chew over and debate upon, and greatly remembered for creating a fable that he absconded an amount of seventy million cedis back in those days from the chairman of Kumasi Asante Kotoko. This is the kind of identity Bernard Dong Bortey has achieved in Ghana football, and unfortunately, the belief about him has superseded his achievement as a player:
* Three Ghanaian Premier League titles
* 2002 Ghana Top 4 winner and top goalscorer
* 2004 CAF Confederation Cup winner
* 38 goals in 77 games at all levels
* 11 goals in 27 caps for Black Stars (Ghana)
Now plying his trade in Vietnam with Sông Lam Nghê An on loan from Aduana Stars, Bernard Dong Bortey has escaped the fishbowl, that is Ghana, given that his reputation has long been broken down following several contentious instances.
The most natural example of a player who believes it is him against the world most of the time, Bortey, who is no stranger to the disciplinary table has been handed a 12-month ban for allegedly assaulting the centre referee during the FA Cup match against King Solomon FC.
However, a livid Dong Bortey still feels the punishment is too much considering the real happenings of the game in question.
"The referee took an unjustified foul against me and i just protested so one-year ban is too much" , he said.
"If you ban me 7 to 10 matches i think it's fine but a whole year? What becomes of my football career?"
Reputation certainly went before Bortey that day.
And for him to win the love of football fans in Ghana, he has to identify the battlefield and the foe; his mind. Because the tag of being a "dirty" player, a thief, a swindler and the "me against the world" complex is clearly imprinted on the inside of his brain.
Perhaps unfairly, you decide because most fans are never going to change their conception about Bernard Dong Bortey.
