By: Nana Kwame Bediako
Presidential candidate for the National Democratic Party (NDC), John Mahama, has promised to lead the rebuilding of Ghana’s national team if he’s elected to lead the country.
According to the former president, he will build the image of the Black Stars into a national team based on homegrown players.
He stated emphatically that he will collaborate with the GFA to make sure that change comes to play for the betterment of football in Ghana.
“We performed poorly because we’re not growing our football. So we’re going to work with the football association to start catching them young, so that we can train them and give them to local teams to train them and give them experience. If they even want to travel abroad, they can,” said John Mahama.
He made this comment when he visited the Northern Region as part of his Building Ghana Tour campaign.
His comment follows Ghana’s exit from the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON), where the Black Stars exited the tournament with two points, drawing 2-2 with Egypt and Mozambique, respectively, and losing 1-2 to Cape Verde.
Ghana has been hit with a heavy blow when it comes to sustaining the development of football in the country. Football in Ghana has lost its identity for some time now when it comes to matters involving the senior national team, the Black Stars.
But John Mahama said that the strategy of bringing foreign players who have no local experience to play with players who gained more of their experience from the local front won’t always work for the team when it comes to tournaments.
“We just came from the Africa Cup of Nations, and we performed abysmally, disastrously,” Mahama mentioned.
Watch here:
John Mahama on Ghana Football
— GTV Ghana (@GTV_Ghana) February 5, 2024
"We will build the new @GhanaBlackstars based on home grown players, the core of the black stars must be made by domestic players" – John Mahama pic.twitter.com/oWNDWwbsdf
