Feature: Why Ghana Premier League players cannot form the core of the Black Stars

Published on: 27 February 2013

I will keep this short and simple:

Ideally I would want and do want the local league to produce most of our senior players. My biggest problem is, as soon as a player learns to kick a ball straight they move to another country! These days to even mediocre leagues or footballing countries. Thus, as soon as you give a charity call up to a local player they are no longer a local player and are likely to go end up on the bench in some foreign country sometimes barely getting to play any games. Thus, the cycle continues and you can't form a consistent team. For example there is some talk about Dauda moving to a South African club(the same one as the Zambian keeper) this will mean there is a chance he will be on the bench for a long time then, the investment made in him by the coaches is one which was wasted because he becomes another foreign based bench-warmer. Players Emmanuel Clottey, Solomon Asante, and Richard Kissi Boateng were among the best players in the local league last year and produced Ghana's best performance in the CAF champions league in recent years now, they are all no longer in the local league and, Berekum Chelsea is today a mediocre team fraught with infighting and have little to no hope to play in next years CAF champions league even though we will have 2 spots next. The very core of the team has been sold. Some even to mediocre teams in Africa.

Thus, the league is not attractive and hemorrhages it's talent at an absurd rate. How can one build their national team around such a league?? If you build your team around foreign born players you are relying on a foreign coach giving them the experiences to improve and if you build it around local players they will move when they get a dollar or two offer!

The real solution is to improve the local league and increase the money within it to at least have ONE team that is capable of keeping its best talent and attracting the best talent. Then, if those players play together for a while the national team can bring some of them in.

Bringing in a player who is playing to get a big contract move to clubs in even Africa is a bit ridiculous. All in all the best national teams these days like Spain and Germany have most of their players playing for one or two of their local clubs so, they play together all year long and have a good understanding. This is something our local league can never achieve in the short term thus, giving charity call ups to players who will move as soon as they end up in the limelight is not a way to promote the local league but, a means and mechanism to get players contracts. Only the best players should be called and unfortunately to those with an agenda most are in Europe.

Pen name: Transient Justice

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