Sports News of Thursday, 21 November 2019

Source: ghanaguardian.com

Kwabena Owusu's manager rejects 'bad boy' tag on player

Owusu scored a brace for Ghana at the u-23 AFCON Owusu scored a brace for Ghana at the u-23 AFCON

Local Manager of Kwabena Owusu, Fiifi Parker has hit back at critics questioning the attitude of the Black Meteors forward in the ongoing CAF U23 AFCON in Egypt.

The Spain based attacker is one of the most experienced players selected by Ghana Coach Ibrahim Tanko for the African version of the 2020 Olympic games Qualifiers having previously featured for the country's senior team, the Black Stars.

Despite that, Owusu has been the subject of wide criticism from Ghanaians for what has been described as an unacceptable attitude in the Black Meteors camp in Egypt last week.

The Cordoba forward reportedly snubbed his teammates and the technical team after he was asked to return his jersey for laundry, arguing that jerseys are not collected after games.

That led to his subsequent relegation to the bench for Ghana's final group game against Mali but the forward came off the bench to score twice to give the Black Meteors an all important three points which helped secure passage to the semi final.

He was again dropped for the semi final clash with Ivory Coast, coming on as a first half substitute and ultimately provided the assist for Ghana's equalizing goal late in the second half to force the game into extra time.

Kwabena Owusu however missed his penalty as the Black Meteors missed out on the final and an early ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

But Fiifi Parker who discovered the Cordoba striker at age 11 has debunked all the allegations leveled against the player.

Speaking on Kick off on Atinka TV, Fiifi Said “I’m surprised that some journalists can sit here in Ghana and propagate false news like this, what do they want to achieve?".

"When I heard the news I called Kwabena and asked him about it. He was shocked to hear what he heard from journalists who should know better.

"Kwabena told me it was even Ibrahim Tanko who played the voice to him and said have you seen what is going on in Ghana? Make sure you silence them with your performance, and Kwabena been a good player showed his quality with two important goals. I was very happy he helped the team to qualify.

”Kwabena is a good boy, very disciplined and a jovial person. He can’t do what they were saying. I have a lot of players outside the country and in Ghana here, I trained all of them to be discipline”, Fiifi added.

Fiifi Parker, who also discovered and trained Kingsley Fobi, said he called Fobi to be sure of Kwabena’s behavior and he was satisfied with what he heard.