2026 World Cup: I have released Harry Kane from bondage - Nana Kwaku Bonsam

A witch doctor from Ghana who “cursed” Harry Kane claims to have “released” England’s captain from the hex following the country’s World Cup stalemate.

Nana Kwaku Bonsam, who previously boasted of being behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s knee injury at the 2014 tournament, posted a video to Facebook after Kane wasted an easy chance to win Tuesday night’s match in Boston.

“I am the most powerful spiritualist in the whole world. Now, I am going to release Harry Kane so that, his next match, he can score,” Bonsam said, while performing what appeared to be some kind of ritual involving obscure objects.

“Harry, I will come and visit you. Don’t be offended. We are friends.”

In the days leading up to the game, Bonsam told the Daily Star: “I am working on Harry Kane. I have shown what I am capable of before, so I know what work I must do to stop him. I am very famous for my predictions.

“I am not wishing him serious injury. It will be just enough to stop him against my country. I will do my work so that it can help Ghana.”

The threat prompted a response by Uri Geller, the illusionist who famously claimed to have moved the ball when Gary McAllister missed a penalty during England’s 1996 European Championship win against Scotland.

Vowing to “cancel” any curse, Geller said: “Before the match, I will send vibrations. I will activate all my powers, all my energy, all my know-how to stop his negative vibrations from hitting Harry Kane.”

Bonsam – whose name translates literally as “Devil of Wednesday” – claimed in 2014 to have tried to make Ronaldo miss that year’s World Cup, at which Portugal were in the same group as Ghana.

Ronaldo was injured before the tournament but still played and scored the winning goal in the game, though both countries were eliminated in the group stage.

England’s display against Ghana has been described as “a Southgate performance” by Micah Richards on the podcast he hosts with Gary Lineker.

Richards, who is also covering the World Cup for the BBC, accused Thomas Tuchel’s side of being “so easy to figure out” following their goalless draw in their second game of the tournament.

Speaking on The Rest is Football on Netflix, hours after watching Tuesday’s match from the BBC’s Salford studio, Richards said: “I just feel, though, we’re going to need to improve. This is not me panicking or being reactionary, getting over the top. It’s nothing, a case of that. It’s just we knew we were going to have these games. And that, to me, was like a Southgate performance.”

Claiming there was “no energy” in the team, he added: “They just went away from what was so impressive in that first game against Croatia.”

Sir Gareth Southgate, Tuchel’s predecessor as England manager, was repeatedly criticised on The Rest is Football during the European Championship two years ago, where England reached the final before losing to Spain.

Following a dire 1-1 group-stage draw against Denmark, Lineker called the team’s performance “s---” and suggested Southgate was “tactically inept”.

Lineker opened Wednesday’s show by saying he was “still England’s joint World Cup goalscorer” after Harry Kane wasted a late chance to score against Ghana, adding: “Every cloud.”

He later added: “You know I’m only joking on that because I want him to beat the record, I want him to score loads of goals, I want England to win the World Cup.

“But the one person you wanted it land to there. It’s just so unlike him. He’s human!”

Lineker was also far more philosophical about England’s display than he had been after their second match at Euro 2024.

Pointing out the winners of the last two World Cups, France and Argentina, had setbacks in their own group matches before they won the tournament, he said: “I wouldn’t read too much into this game personally. Jude Bellingham said the following after the game: ‘It was very frustrating. Second game fever. Same as always. Important for us – and you guys – not to get too negative. No worries, no stress, no drama, stay positive. Not the end of the world.’

“I would agree with that. I think when he’s saying, ‘You guys as well’, I think he’s obviously referring to the media, to us, and to England fans, because I think we all care about the result. And it wasn’t a great performance. But you can’t play well every game. And the time not to do well is in the group stage, when you can’t do too much damage.”

England were fortunate not to lose the game after Jordan Pickford escaped a red card and Ezri Konsa also brought down Prince Kwabena Adu in the box.

“Boy, that was a penalty,” Lineker said. “Crikey, they didn’t even seem to bother about it at all.”

Co-host Alan Shearer said, of the match: “No need to panic. It’s not a disaster, but I think football has a crazy way of bringing you back down to Earth, doesn’t it?

“I mean, after the excitement of the game against Croatia, and rightly so, because the second half in particular was very good, we were all expecting them to come out of the blocks today and bring that belief and bring that confidence into the game.

“But they started slowly and it ended slowly, basically. They didn’t do enough to win the game. They were too slow, they were too safe, didn’t take enough risks in their passing, had one big chance, but also probably fortunate not to give away a penalty.

“So, all in all, I thought a draw was a fair result. But I did think Ghana were absolutely outstanding. Their organisation and their defending were brilliant.”

Guest Joe Cole, the former Chelsea and England midfielder, said Tuchel had been “too slow” in making substitutions and that not picking Cole Palmer or Phil Foden in his squad had left him short of players who could unlock a packed defence.

He said: “There’s always going to be a problem, especially if you leave Cole Palmer and Phil Foden at home and you don’t have someone who – like Kobbie Mainoo maybe – in there who can maybe go and get on the ball and handle it and give you that little bit of magic.

“But we could’ve won it. Kane puts that in the top corner. We’re on a train. But no worries at all for me. We’re all right.”

Gary Neville, speaking on his Stick to Football podcast, argued England had been “better” in some ways than against Croatia.

Declaring “the chaos had gone” from what had been an entertaining 4-2 win last week, he said: “I enjoyed the game. I’m going to get heavily criticised for this, but there’s part of me [that] thinks that that was a better performance than the game against Croatia.”

Neville admitted Ghana should have had a penalty, but that the decision not to send off Pickford earlier in the game was the correct one.

Roy Keane, Neville’s co-host, said “Pickford got lucky a couple of times” and joked: “They obviously want England to get to the final.”

Co-host Ian Wright added, “I think we were very fortunate in that game. Because we didn’t do enough creatively, and then I thought that, look, we were very fortunate with that Konsa challenge.”

Gordon’s performance was also singled out for criticism, with Keane saying the Barcelona-bound winger looked “frightened” of the responsibility given him by Tuchel.

Neville added, “I think he’s under pressure now. I think he’s the one who’s going to find it a little bit difficult to keep his spot.”

England face Panama on Saturday in their final group-stage match.