Former President of Ghana and National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, has outlined a strategic vision to revitalize the country’s football scene, responding to the disappointing performance of the Black Stars at AFCON 2023.
In his proposal, Mahama pledges collaboration with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to construct a team with a foundation from the domestic league. Emphasizing the importance of nurturing homegrown talents, he envisions providing exposure to these players by placing them in the right local clubs before considering international opportunities.
Reflecting on Ghana’s recent AFCON campaign, Mahama expressed dissatisfaction, stating, “We just came from the Africa Cup of Nations, and we performed abysmally and disastrously.” He identified the need for a paradigm shift, focusing on youth development in collaboration with the GFA.
We performed abysmally because we are not growing our football and so we are going to work with the Ghana Football Association to start catching them young so that we can train them and give them to local teams to gain experience before if they want to travel abroad they can travel,” he added.
Mahama stressed the significance of finding the right balance between homegrown and foreign-based players to build a cohesive national team.
“We will build the new Black Stars based on homegrown players—domestic players who have trained together for a long time and work as a team. Then we will bring the foreign players to come and blend with them,” he explained.
Highlighting the potential challenges of relying solely on foreign players, Mahama pointed out that they often play in individual teams, making it difficult to foster effective teamwork during competitions.
“If you bring only foreign players, they don’t play together and play in their individual teams and then when it’s time for competition and tell them to come and play, it won’t work. The core of the Black Stars must be made of domestic players.
Concluding, Mahama expressed a commitment to overhauling Ghana football in collaboration with the Football Association, outlining a comprehensive approach to address the shortcomings and rejuvenate the national team.
“We are going to overhaul Ghana football in collaboration with the Football Association.”
