Former Ghanaian president and flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama, has proposed a plan to revive football in his country after the Black Stars’ dismal performance at AFCON 2023.
The former president asserts that to put together a team with a core from the national league, his administration will collaborate with the Ghana Football Association.
He also expressed the desire to develop homegrown players and present them to the right local clubs to give them the exposure they need before heading overseas.
“We just came from the Africa Cup of Nations, and we performed abysmally and disastrously,” he said.
“We performed abysmally because we are not growing our football, and so we are going to work with the Ghana Football Association to start catching them young so that we can train them and give them to local teams to gain experience before if they want to travel abroad they can travel,” he stated.
John Mahama thinks that developing a strong national team will require striking the correct balance between domestic and foreign players.
“Homegrown players will serve as the foundation for the new Black Stars. We will invite foreign players to join and integrate with the local players who have been training together for a considerable amount of time and function as a team,” he said.
“It won’t work to tell them to come play when it’s competition time if you only bring in foreign players. They won’t play together or on their respective teams. Domestic players must comprise the Black Stars’ core. “We are going to overhaul Ghana football in collaboration with the Football Association.”
