The President of the country’s football governing body says his outfit ‘wants players who will play for the love of the country’ to don the national colours under new coach Charles Akonnor.
According to him, the current Ghana FA administration is eager to help the country end the long trophy drought on the continent, therefore it would be prudent to get players who are willing to die for the country to make the dream of winning the fifth AFCON title with the Black Stars a reality.
Akonnor led the Black Stars for his first assignment last month during international friendlies against Mali and Qatar. The Black Stars suffered a 3-0 loss to Mali before recovering from the defeat to seal a 5-1 win against Qatar.
‘’I think every coach in the country wants success. As the leader of the football family, I want success. The management committee of the Black Stars wants success and even the whole country. Nana Addo Dankwa wants success because he’s demanding trophies,’’ he told Hello FM in Kumasi.
‘’Everybody wants success so as an FA we will ensure that we get a competitive team. Don’t know the areas of concern because the coach went through all the necessary processes engaging the Technical Director, the Management Committee of the Black Stars and the Executive Committee and myself before releasing his latest call-ups.
‘’We’re very clear about our minds the reasons behind the call-ups and what values we think every intangible asset of this squad bring to Ghana.
‘’Ghana needs trophies and we are not going to leave any stone unturned. Any player that the coach feels can help his course would be invited to fight for a place and represents Ghana.
‘’We want players who will play for the love of the country, those will be proud of representing Ghana and those who will play with passion.’’ Mr. Okraku concluded.
The Black Stars will later this month face Sudan in the 2021 African Cup of Nations qualifiers at the Cape Coast Stadium and head coach will be expecting a victory to continue Ghana’s impressive campaign in the qualifiers.
The four-time African Champions won its first two opening games in the qualification matches under then-head coach Kwasi Appiah, beating South Africa 2-0 in Ghana and going ahead to defeat Sao Tome and Principe 1-0 in Sao Tome.
