Renowed football commentator Kwabena Yeboah says the Ghana Football Association should be guided by past experience as it seeks to convince more players of Ghanaian descent to play for the Black Stars.
Yeboah says too many players have considered African national teams as second options and wants motive and desire to be central in the GFA’s decisions about who to chase and who not to chase.
GFA communications director Ibrahim Sannie Daara admits to 3FM Sports that they are seeking to get Manchester United teenager Tim Ofosu Mensah on board for the Black Stars and possibly Atletico Bilbao’s Inaki Williams but admits there are major challenges.
Daara admits there has been an element of opportunism on the part of some of the players in the past and the GFA too, something Yeboah agrees with.
"When players ply their trade in England, in the Netherlands or wherever they find themselves, if those nations are ready to employ their services then there is no way that most of those players will play for Ghana. That is bottom line," he told 3FM’s Warm Up program.
"Saanie used the word opportunism; most players who come to play for us have also proven very very opportunistic and it is like missing their first choice and settling on their second choice."
"Look at Kevin-Prince Boateng. During the period of nationality switch, when there was that delay, he was rather pushing for an early resolution of that issue yet all he did was to ride on our back. When he did well with the Black Stars in Brazil and AC Milan came calling, he turned his back on us for four years, he never ever decided to play for us again and again proved highly opportunistic when it was time to go and play inBrazil during the world cup."
"He sneaked into our team, just played one or two qualifiers and joined the team. So we must be very, very careful who we try to bring on board. If there is any desire on the part of an individual to want to play for us, why not. We are looking for the best material around so we must be careful and settle on only those who believe that this is their motherland, they want to commit to us and are very, very sincere of that commitment of playing for us and and not being opportunistic."