Former Hearts of Oak coach, Abubakar Yusuf has expressed his amazement at the absence of local based players in the squad presented by Coach Avram Grant for the World Cup qualifier against Egypt.
The seasoned trainer believes that apart from Wa All Stars goalkeeper, Richard Ofori, who made the list, a lot more talent abounds in the local league who merit a call up.
He expressed his disgust at the fact that these locally-based lads are only called up to be examined and discarded, discrediting the work of colleague coaches.
“It is a big problem and we local coaches need to ask ourselves how our work for all these years is being deemed and valued.
“It is very surprising when we award outstanding players at the end of every season and these players cannot make our national team.
“I believe consistently some of our players deserve to be named because I know the technical committee of the football association are made up of brilliant people and they know we have good local players.
“Maxwell Konadu who is the assistant and a local coach knows football and good players. So I then tend to suspect Avram Grant is working solo and not listening or regarding his input. Maybe we have allowed Grant to work independently so much that he does his selection with no recommendations from his assistant and the technical team.”
A saddened Yusuf Abubakar is of the view that there should be a standing order that compels Ghana’s national team coaches to include local players in their call ups.
