Chief Seidu Adamu, a Ghanaian sports journalist, has categorically stated that the local-based players should not be trusted to lead Ghana against South Africa and Sao Tome and Principe.
In Charles Akonnor’s latest squad, nine local players were named. Some Ghanaians have argued that more local players should be added since some of the best foreigners are not available.
However, Seidu Adamu disagreed with that school of thought in an interview on the Joy Sports Link.
“When the great Jones Attuquayefio assembled an 11-man locally-based side to play Nigeria, people blamed him for not qualifying to the 2002 World Cup due to that decision. People still blame him for it today. This was the time that Ghana had the best league in Africa because Hearts of Oak had been rated as the 8th best team in the world,” he informed Nathaniel Attoh on Saturday.
“They had the quality at the time. However, people believed that if he [Attuquayefio] had called the foreign-based players, Ghana would have beaten Nigeria and made it to the World Cup.
So today, when the Ghanaian League is ranked 20th, when our top club is unable to even beat some of the weakest teams across the globe, we still want to trust our AFCON qualifiers entirely in the hands of local-based players? I disagree with this.”
Ghana will face South Africa and Sao Tome and Principe within the next eight days.
