The Ghana goalkeeper failed to make the cut in the maiden selection of Black Stars head coach Charles Kwablan Akonnor in March 2020 but since that time Lawrence Ati Zigi has massively improved becoming the first choice at St. Gallen.
The 23-year old left French Ligue 2 side Sochaux – where he was mostly a benchwarmer – in January this year to take up a new challenge in Switzerland and it did not take much time for the Ghanaian to adapt to life at St Gallen adequately replacing Dejan Stojanovic who joined Championship club Middlesbrough in England.
Gallen finished runners-up in the 2019/20 Swiss Super League on 68 points as winners Young Boys picked 76 points and Zigi appeared in 18 consecutive matches starting and completing all keeping 5 clean sheets but he conceded 30 times.
Akonnor handed call-ups to first choice goalkeeper Richard Ofori of South Africa side Maritzburg United, Razak Abalora of Azam FC and Accra Hearts of Oak shot-stopper Richard Attah for the suspended 2021 AFCON qualifying games against Sudan.
These games are set to be played in November according to CAF and the Black Stars technical team is expected to revise the initial selections to reflect the current situation.
If Zigi is to make a return to the team, as it stands now it is the Phobian goalkeeper Attah whose place is likely to be taken by the St. Gallen number one as there has been no competitive football in the country for at least the past five months now and it is uncertain when the game will resume.
“We considered him to be part of the squad but the last games we played, we had Razak Abalora in as an assistant to [Richard] Ofori and then Felix Annan as well. Now Felix is out and we brought in Attah. It’s all about the continuation of what we did in the previous match and we want to continue with that but he’s being considered as part of the data and we will look at it again.” Akonnor said back in March.
St. Gallen also qualified for the 2020/21 Europa League thanks to their league position.
