Former Vice President of the Ghana Football Association, Fred Pappoe says calls for the handlers of the Black Stars to give the captaincy of the team to Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey are immature and could destroy the player’s progress in the national team.

The captaincy of the senior national teams remains a thorny issue and reports have been rife that the struggle for who becomes the leader of the playing body has led to deep cracks within the national team culminating in Kwesi Appiah’s decision to leave out skipper Asamoah Gyan and his deputy Andre Dede Ayew in recent call-ups.

In the absence of the duo, Thomas Partey has been given the privilege of captaining the team in recent matches and the midfielder’s leadership prowess seem to have caught the eyes of some Ghanaians who want him to be the captain of the ‘new Black Stars’ being prepared by coach Kwesi Appiah.

But in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb , the man known in the football circles as Papsey pleaded with Ghanaians not to ‘disturb’ Partey with issues surrounding the captaincy.

Fred Pappoe who is clearly impressed by the progress made by the 22-year-old opined that Ghanaians owe it as a responsibility not to drag the youngster into Black Stars captaincy brouhaha . “One thing I will plead with Ghanaians is that do not taint Thomas Partey with this captaincy argument. Let’s keep him out of that. We owe it as a responsibility to the young man. He has a huge potential, huge talent and he is hugely promising, let’s not disturb him with this captaincy thing. Let’s keep him away from that for the time being”, he said.



Partey not interested in Black Stars captaincy

Thomas Partey has disclosed that he is not aiming for Black Stars’ captain’s armband after captaining the side in recent friendly encounters.

“This is just the beginning, I cannot say I am the captain of the Black Stars because I have important players in front of me so I just work harder as I said earlier and anything that comes is a bonus.

“As a player, I just play to achieve more for my club and country, being a captain doesn’t make me achieve anything, I just have to do my work and it will be the decision of the coach to choose a captain, Partey said.

The Black Stars will return to action in September for the 2019 Africa Cup qualifiers and it will be interesting to see if coach Kwesi Appiah will name Asamoah Gyan and Andre Ayew in his squad.