Black Queens winger, Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah says it will be with absolute pride wearing the national colors for Ghana in the upcoming TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON). The London City Lionesses winger has impressed the technical team with her pace, vision, and leadership on the field since joining the team in March. The media team sat down with her in a conversation on joining the team, WAFCON dreams and her goals and aspirations.
Read on for full transcript:
On her ties with Ghana
My father’s from Accra. I’ve got a lot of family out in Ghana as well who I haven’t visited yet and I was a little bit disappointed that my first camp wasn’t in Ghana so I could really feel like the sense of unity between everybody and the culture. The girls have shown me that I’ve been missing for a long time because I’ve got a lot of support out there that are waiting to see me as well, but I haven’t had the chance to go out and see them out there. So hopefully soon I can put my feet on the ground in Ghana, and I get to reap the fruits of the beautiful country that it is.
On feeling at home among the Black Queens
It feels like part of my roots. It feels like a big sense of home away from home. It’s like my two homes colliding. Obviously am partly from England and I have half Ghanaian as well, so it’s brought me closer to the motherland as I always say, my roots, the people. It feels amazing because everyone’s really nice. Yeah, the girls are really welcoming as well, so it’s really good.
From the first day I was a little bit shy. I’m a shy person, but then straight away, I’ve never been in an environment before where everyone is genuine. Everybody’s really grateful and shows positivity and they made me feel like I’ve been a part of it for a long time.
On her personal goals with the Black Queens
For me, straight away, my first thought was obviously to represent and to make Ghana be spoke about in a very, very good light in women’s football.
So personally, my goals and aspirations for that are to represent and win as many games as we can. But also to hopefully become a legend for the Ghana Women.
Someone that people can look up to. The young generation can see my route through European football and they can also see that as well as representing Ghana at the national level.
On how it feels heading into the WAFCON
Personally, it’s a big achievement to be going, hopefully, to a major competition, especially representing Ghana as well with the girls and everything that is part of the nation. As I say, it’s the motherland for me. So to go and represent Ghana at a major tournament myself feels amazing. I’m lost for words, to be honest, just grateful for the opportunity and hopefully I can show that am wearing the shirt with pride and make the country proud.
On bringing the energy from club level to the Black Queens
Every time I touch the pitch, every time I play football, it’s passion because I am filled with passion. I think everyone that sees me play, whether we’re chasing the game or we’re winning a game, I always have the passion and try and feed that energy from me to other people.
So, when I’m wearing the Ghana jersey, I’ll be bringing that exact same passion, the same desire and the same focus as well to win the games and hopefully do something special with this national team as well.
Chantelle has proven to be a natural-born competitor after having a successful season at club level, scoring the last goal to secure promotion for side into the English Women’s Premier League.
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