Former Black Stars deputy coach Ibrahim Tanko has suggested how the country’s football governing body can influence foreign-based Ghanaian players to switch nationality and play for the senior national team.
Ghana, four-time African Champions, currently have abundant talents in who are unwilling to play for the Black Stars with the newest being Anderlecht youngster Jeremy Duku who snubbed Ghana to play for Belgium.
According to Ibrahim Tanko, there are countless talented Ghanaian players abroad and they must be captured at a youthful age before they even get call-ups to the national team of those European countries.
Speaking to Wontumi Sports, the Black Stars B coach said: “There are a lot of Ghanaian talents abroad especially in England, Germany, and Holland but we always wait for them to play first-team football before they get our attention. If we want to integrate them into our national team, we need to start early. A player like Tariq Lamptey has the potential of playing for the England national team because he plays in England,”
The former Cameroon assistant trainer, called on the Ghana FA to set up a scouting network by using some former Ghanaian players abroad who can monitor and approach these players and convince them to play for the national team.
“In Germany, we have Oto Addo, Eric Addo in Holland, Adu Tutu is also in Austria and Razak in Denmark. If we ask these former players to speak to the youngsters, they can convince them because they have experience in dealing with players. I know Turkish FA have an office in Germany because they know they are Turkish players who are based in Germany. So if we do the same, we will get these players.”
Ghana over the year has lost some brilliant talents to other countries such as Myron Boadu (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands) Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea, England), Jeremy Duku (Anderlecht, Belgium) among others.
Meanwhile, Ghana FA Executive Council member George Amoako in an interview with Nhyira Power Sports revealed that most players born abroad are not interested in playing for the Black Stars because of magic power (Juju)
Amoako who chairs the Black Stars management committee during the interview said: “There are a lot of perceptions about how Ghanaian footballers play the game,”
“Destructive tendencies in the game, those who deliberately want to injure you and cut short your career.
“Then the usual unending speculations, especially about Ghanaian players using juju to play football.
“Even those who were raised here and go to Europe to play there, most of them because of juju don’t want to play for Ghana.
“Its a very big problem we are trying to unravel and make right,” he concluded.
