Former Black Stars midfielder, Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, has retold the story of rejection and neglect suffered by former Ghanaian defender, Jerry Akaminko, after his injury in a pre-World Cup friendly match against the Netherlands in 2014.

In Ghana’s final preparatory match for the 2014 World Cup, Akaminko suffered an injury that ruled him out of the World Cup and set his career on a downward spiral.

In an interview on Accra FM about the Black Stars’ poor performance at the 2023 AFCON, Agyemang-Badu cited Akaminko's story as a perfect example of how players’ welfare should be taken seriously by the FA.

Agyemang-Badu recounted that after Akaminko underwent surgery in the United States of America, no member of the then-FA administration made attempts to check on his recovery.

He revealed that there were some complications in the surgery adding that Akaminko’s club had to fly him to Germany to undergo another surgery to correct the mistake from the initial surgery.

“Prior to the 2014 World Cup, Jerry Akaminko was one of our best players. He was playing for Kayserispor with the likes of Galatasaray and Fenerbahce interested in signing him. He suffered an injury in the 89th minute of Ghana’s friendly match against the Netherlands.

“He was flown to the US to undergo surgery. From then till now no one from the FA has even called to check on him. No one called to seek update on his welfare. There were some issues from the surgery so his club sent him to Germany to undergo another process.

“No one even gave him $10 and his career went downhill from there. Had he not planned his life well, he would be struggling,” he said.

In 2022, Jerry Akaminko spoke to Happy FM about how he was abandoned by the Ghana Football Association after that injury.

“I knew the World Cup was over for me because of the pain that I was going through after the injury. The GFA took care of the surgery in Miami, USA, and my club and agent took care of the recovery process. Nobody from the GFA or technical team visited me after that. I never got a single call from anybody”, Akaminko lamented on how he was abandoned after that nasty injury.

“They can have some of the management members, assigned to just checking up on players. It helps in team bonding. If they are managers, they should care about players’ welfare and not only about performance”.


EK