Former Ghana international, Augustine Ahinful, has raised concerns about the readiness of local players to play for the senior national team, the Black Stars.
Ahinful’s comments come amid discussions about the composition of the Black Stars and whether domestic players should be included in the squad.
There have been suggestions for the new technical team to consider a blend of both local and foreign-based players.
However, the former Ashgold striker has warned against sidelining foreign-based players, stressing their experience and exposure to higher levels of competition as crucial for the team’s success.
”So, the local players, yes, we can look at the best ones and select them into the national team, but we can’t say that we should use the local players alone to play the national team,” he told Graphic Sports.
Ahinful highlighted the disappointing performance of the local Black Stars at the recent Championship of Africa Nations (CHAN) tournament in Algeria as evidence.
Ghana failed to progress beyond the group stage, prompting Ahinful to question whether local players are ready to compete at the highest level without the support of more experienced teammates.
”Somewhere last year there was this CHAN competition in Algeria and our local Black Stars were there, and we didn’t even qualify from the group stage. We saw how the players performed, and now are we saying the same players should come and play at the AFCON?” he queried.
The Black Stars will reconvene in June for their 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Mali and the Central African Republic.
