Ghana FA Executive Council member George Amoako, has claimed that most Ghanaian players with different nationalities are not interested in playing for the Black Stars because of black magic commonly known as “juju”.
The former Asante Kotoko CEO who chairs the Black Stars management committee revealed during an interview with Nhyira Power Sports that the Ghana FA has a gigantic task at hand by trying to persuade players who were born abroad to play for the African powerhouse because of the perception that “juju” in the team can endanger their football careers.
Over the years, there have been unverified reports in the local media about players using of Black Magic powers in the camp of the Black Stars.
According to George Amoako, these perceptions are making it very problematic for the FA to induce these players born abroad to present Ghana at the senior national level.
He says “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.
“It’s a very big problem we are trying to unravel and make right,” he concluded.
Ghana in the past have been able to convince some players to switch nationality and play for the Black Stars.
The cases of Quincy Owusu Abeyie, Emmanuel Frimpong, Kevin Prince Boateng, Akwasi Appiah, Christopher Adjei-Antwi, Jeffrey Schlupp, Edwin Gyasi among others are clear examples.
Anderlecht youngster Jeremy Doku for instance recently refused to play for the Black Stars and accepted an invite to represent Belgium at the senior national level despite being visited by former Ghana coach Kwasi Appiah and current coach CK Akonnor to hold talks with him.
Meanwhile, the FA, SPORTS WORLD GHANA can confirm is currently working on a nationality switch process for Dutch-born defender Derrick Luckassen, Elisha Owusu, Brian Brobbey and others to play for the four-time African champions.
