Jonathan Abbey Pobee, veteran football administrator, has called on Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah, to reject Black Stars captain Asamoah Gyan and his deputy Andre Ayew, if he wants to succeed.
Mr. Abbey Pobee, who congratulated coach Appiah on his latest call up, said “if the coach wants to succeed, then he needs players who would bring peace to the team and I don’t think Ayew and Gyan would bring that”. The owner of lower tier side Neoplan Stars, noted that, Black Stars coach must be commended for the bold step, he has taken to eliminate the two leaders for peace to prevail in the team.
“I have to congratulate Appiah for assembling a quality squad. Because we know that there is power-play between the players and this always brings confusion into the team.
“As far as we know we are experiencing captaincy problems between Gyan and Ayew and this has resulted in factions in the team. “So if today Appiah is able to eliminate all these people and have called up fresh batch of players into the Black Stars, it is the best decision,” he told the GNA Sports in an interview.
“It is better for peace to prevail in the team, than to have players fighting among themselves. We have had several instances (some in tournaments) to prove that the two players have not been on good terms. “And nobody can tell me that there is no confusion in the team because of these players,” he added.
Coach Kwesi Appiah has named a 21-man squad for the Black Stars' upcoming international friendly matches against Iceland and Japan in June. Ghana will use the games as part of preparations for their upcoming 2019 AFCON qualifying games which will come off later this year.
Below are the players who will represent Ghana in the friendly games: Richard Ofori (Maritzburg FC, South Africa) Lawrence Ati Zigi (Sochaux, France) Lumor Abgenyenu (Sporting CP, Portugal) Kyere yiadom Andrews ( Reading, England) Kwasi Okyere (Bayern Munich, Germany) Joseph Attamah (Istanbul Basaksehir F.K., Turkey) Sackey Isaac (Alanyaspor,Turkey) Afriyie Acquah (Torino, Italy) Kassim Nuhu (Young Boys, Switzerland) Dwamena Raphael (FC Zurich, Switzerland) Frank Acheampong (Tianjin Teda, China) Yiadom Boakye (Jiangsu Suning, China) Wakaso Mubarak (Deportivo Alaves) Thomas Partey (Atletico Madrid,Spain) Emmanuel Boateng (Levante, Spain) Gyasi Edwin (CSKA Sofia, Bulgaria) Thomas agyepong (NAC Breda, Holland) Rashid Sumaila ( Al Gharafa, Qatar) Nicholas Opoku (Club African, Tunisia) Nana Ampomah ( Waasland- Beveren, Belgium) Albert Adomah (Aston Villa,