Former Ghana international Derek Boateng has criticized the Ghana Football Association (GFA) for not doing enough to attract European-born Ghanaian players to the national team.
Despite the GFA’s success in recruiting talents like Inaki Williams, Tariq Lamptey, and Antoine Semenyo, Boateng argues that the Association needs a more structured approach to engage young European-born players to represent the four-time African champions.
In an interview, the former Fulham midfielder pointed out how countries like Germany proactively scout young players with German roots and nurture them for the national team.
Boateng expressed his frustration at seeing players of Ghanaian descent, such as Kobbie Mainoo, Jeremy Doku, Jeremie Frimpong, and Nico Williams, choose to represent European countries instead of Ghana.
Sharing his experiences from scouting trips in the USA, he observed other nations’ efforts to identify and develop young talent with roots in their respective countries.
He specifically noted Germany’s active scouting of young players with German heritage and their early integration to build a sense of national identity.
“I have been in the USA for scouting jobs multiple times and I have seen expatriates also joining to scout players, but they are doing that for their country. I know Germany is doing that.
“I was told that they are doing that because they want to bring all young players with roots in Germany and, after identifying them, they will camp them. By doing that, the players will know where they are coming from” Boateng told Kingdom FM.
He continued, “In Ghana, we don’t know how to do these things, and we keep losing players because we are not paying attention to how we can get them. How can we lose players like Kobbie Mainoo, Jeremy Doku, Jeremie Frimpong, and Nico Williams? Inaki is playing for us, but why couldn’t we get Nico? Because he is good and talented, Spain blocked his chances of playing for Ghana” Boateng lamented.
Boateng criticized the GFA’s reactive approach, emphasizing the need to engage players and their families from a young age rather than waiting until they have already begun their professional careers.
“We must do a lot more, and we shouldn’t wait until they are grown up and playing before we start talking to them. By then, their parents will not even allow it because we were not there from the beginning, so why now?” he quizzed.