Football professional at the World Cup: How Luis Suárez became Ghana's "public enemy number one".

It was an epic World Cup moment in 2010 when Ghana striker Dominic Adiyiah's header flew at the Uruguayan goal en route to a new chapter in World Cup history.

The Jabulani, as the plastic ball was then called, passed goalkeeper Fernando Muslera, who had stretched in vain.

Hormones that would make an entire continent happy were already on their way into the bloodstreams of millions of people between Cairo, Accra and Cape Town.

It was 1-1 between the South Americans and Ghana, the players had played 120 minutes and now only half a meter was missing.

And there was virtually no obstacle left that could have prevented the "Black Stars" from becoming the first African team to reach the semi-finals of the biggest football event in the world.

At the first World Cup that took place on this continent, it was like a painting.

A moment for eternity.

Until this villain appeared who threw his hands up and shattered the dream.

Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez saved the ball on the line with a practiced goalkeeper action, of course he saw the red card.

There was also a penalty, but Asamoah Gyan smashed it over the crossbar before Ghana finally lost on penalties.

"It was a very sad day, I was so sad," says Ghana's coach Otto Addo in Doha, the day before Ghana and Uruguay, Ghana and Suárez meet this Friday (4 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the World Cup, in the ZDF and MagentaTV) meet again.

This time in a World Cup preliminary round match that will decide who will advance to the round of 16 of the Qatar tournament.

Addo does not share the need for "revenge".

There was much talk of an impending 'revenge' after the draw, but Addo doesn't share that need.

He even understands Suárez.

The assessment of this unsportsmanlike behavior is a question of perspective, says the Hamburg-born coach, who actually only coaches Ghana at this World Cup as a part-time job and takes care of the best talents from Borussia Dortmund on a day-to-day basis.

"If the same thing had happened the other way around, everyone would say that the player did everything to get to the semifinals," explains Addo, who is trying to defuse the situation: "A lot of people talk about a certain symbolism.

But for me it's not an issue at all, they're just two different games.” Concentration on the important game shouldn't be disturbed by the emotions and images of the past, and yet the moment was so powerful that it couldn't be completely driven away becomes.

To understand the deeper meaning of that evening, it helps to recall the atmosphere in which the 2010 tournament was played.

It was Africa's World Cup that would bolster the continent's battered confidence.

At that time, claims circulated in Europe for a long time that the tournament would still take place elsewhere, despite corresponding promises, because the Africans could not get the organization right.

There was a need, with this World Cup, to counteract the constant degradation to which Africa is exposed with something big and admirable.

This should also include sporting success.

“This World Cup is a symbol.

It's not only taking place in Africa, it's also taking place in the country of Nelson Mandela, it commemorates his fight against apartheid and what he did for the acceptance of black people," said world star Didier Drogba from Ivory Coast at the time, and Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o declared, "This World Cup has the power to unite all Africans in one great purpose." Against this backdrop, Ghana's pain became a tragedy for all Africans.

It was about healing injuries and about the hope of finally not being treated unfairly, a hope that Suárez shattered, at least for all those who perceive the handball as an injustice.

Incidentally, Suárez himself sees it differently. To this day he has no guilty conscience, as he reports when asked about his crime on Thursday: "I will not apologize for it, the Ghanaians missed the penalty, not me," he says .

He didn't commit a foul and didn't injure anyone and was sanctioned with the intended punishment.

So why apologize?

Still, many Ghanaians wish Suárez the worst.

"He's a hero in Uruguay, even though the people of Ghana think he's a fraud.

People hate him," says Asamoah Gyan, who hit the penalty spot back then and is still regularly haunted by the feelings of that night, as he says now.

It is very unlikely that the West African nation will succeed with the current team, which they failed to do then, namely to reach the semi-finals, as the team is probably not strong enough for that.

Ajax Amsterdam's Mohammed Kudus is the only player to draw attention recently in the Champions League and Thomas Partey is enjoying a strong season at Arsenal.

Otherwise, the squad consists primarily of middle-class professionals who, at best, play decent roles in the Premier League, in Spain or, in the case of Daniel Kofi-Kyereh from Freiburg, in the Bundesliga.

And yet today's generation has the chance to make history.

By promoting Ghana to the knockout phase of a World Cup for the third time after 2006 and 2020 and at the same time putting an end to the World Cup career of the man whom the South African football magazine “Far Post” this week dubbed “Ghanas Public Enemy Number One”: Luis Suárez.