John Paintsil, a former defender for the Black Stars, has urged the managers of the Black Galaxies to expand their search for players for the local national team.
He pointed out that the overabundance of players, particularly in the Premier League, was not advantageous and recommended that the Division One League and Division Two League, the second- and third-tier divisions, be included in the search for players.
Paintsil gave Ghana’s poor showing at the recent African Nations Championship (CHAN), which was played in Algeria last month, a lower grade than Coach Annor Walker’s team’s lack of quality players. Ghana was eliminated in the quarterfinals, which Paintsil attributed to bad luck rather than the team’s performance being subpar.
He told Graphic Sports in an interview last Saturday that it was wrong for the Black Galaxies players to be scouted mainly from the premiership when there are very talented players also in the lower tier side who could be given the chance to play for the national team.
“It shouldn’t be; for me, the Black Galaxies should have given the opportunity to the third division, second division, and first division players so that the Black Stars would be given to the premiership players in order to have a fair balance,” he advised.
He admitted that the players who were selected were the best quality we had on the local scene, but their inability to perform wasn’t because they were bad; rather, they all had a bad tournament.
“The players the coach took to the tournament are not bad at all, nobody can question that but like I said they didn’t have their day but he went with a great squad,” he said.
Paintsil, who played the role of a summariser for the TV commentary, was reluctant to finger any official or player for Ghana’s failure at the CHAN, insisting that sometimes a team can have the best of players at a tournament but could still crash out early.
According to him, the late withdrawal of Morocco from the tournament also impacted negatively on Ghana because the presence of the North African side could have motivated the Black Galaxies to play their hearts out against players who performed well at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
“So for them to go there and play just two matches in the group or one match to qualify to the next stage, even the players themselves may think that they didn’t work hard enough to get there, and psychologically, it may affect their performance,” he said.