After the major European leagues came to its finality loads of attention switched to the national teams, with qualifiers being played in between periods on the African continent towards the tournament in Cote d’Ivoire, 2023.
But one topic that has remained on the lips of many Ghanaian football fans is the swirl of players of Ghanaian descent nearing the switch of allegiance to Ghana.
This move of getting players to play for Ghana didn’t start from the current Kurt Okraku-led administration, in fact, erstwhile Kwesi Nyantakyi’s regime also did their bits and pieces to get others to switch, notably, Kevin Prince Boateng and others around that time.
But this current one has seen a number of lads across the globe talked up into playing for the country, some of the names particularly have caused some level of excitement amongst the Ghanaian football fraternity, who have been watching these lads play week-in-week-out for their clubs abroad deemed to be worthy of complementing our status ahead of the World Cup slated for Qatar this year.
The Inaki brothers are in town for holidays and from all indications, the duo fancy the chances of playing for the country, Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi, Brighton star Tariq Lamptey and Arsenal youngster Eddie Nketiah are also in line to complete the nationality switch process.
Their qualities and technical abilities need no mentioning, something, our boys can tap into once they started the bonding process, a recipe for healthy competition for places within the squad.
I have heard people say that these lads of Ghanaian descent are going to walk straight into the squad, but that wouldn’t be the case under Otto Addo’s regime, a man who knows what he is about won’t just hand freebies to anyone just because you play at Chelsea or Hearts of Oak.
The lads who gallantly fought the course and aided Ghana’s qualification to the World Cup will think to themselves that they have to be there at all costs but clearly this is a team in transition, that will require that each and every member has earned the rights of passage and inclusion to hoist the flag of Ghana in the Gulf region.
In all the buzz of playing good football, mixed with quality and technique, fostering unity and team cohesiveness our first love’s shouldn’t be discarded.
