Ex-Ghana keeper – His wife “is not a witch’ and he didn’t take the bribe

Ex-Ghana Keeper Richard Kingson

Ghanaian goalkeeper Richard Kingson made headlines this week when he posted  messages (on facebook) denying that his wife was a witch.

Kingson wrote “My wife is not a witch” after she had allegedly confessed to a pastor that she had “bewitched” him, ruin his career.

Now his latest claim: he rejected a $300,000 offer to throw a match at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.  Ghana went on to win the match, by beating Czech Republic 2 -0.

Kingson, 34, told the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Nigeria that the offer had been made before his team took on Czech Republic in the competition’s group stages.

He claimed the bribe was to make sure that the Czechs won 2-0 – but he had rejected it after his wife pleaded with him not to lose his dignity.

Kingson told the church’s broadcast channel Emmanuel TV he had “got confused by weighing the options of getting richer by $300,000 after that match, whereas all that I would get in the event of a Ghana victory would be much less – just $3,000″.

He explained: “In the 2006 World Cup in Germany, we were about to play Czech Republic. By then they were the second best in the world.

“A Ghanaian led me to some people to take a bribe and it was this woman [his wife] who delivered me and delivered Ghanaians. I was very confused and I didn’t know what to do but I called her and told her. My wife said: ‘Richard, I love you not because of your money, so don’t get tempted by this offer to lose your dignity and credibility.’”