Former Ghana international, Augustine Ahinful has expressed his delight in the return of goalkeeper Adam Larsen Kwarasey to the senior national team, the Black Stars.
The Portland Timbers goalie is available for selection as he has been included in Coach Avram Grant’s 23-man squad that will engage Mozambique in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers next week Thursday.
The ex-Ghana striker feels elated Grant has called the 28-year-old, who excluded himself from national duties after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil over misgivings with Nassamu Yakubu, the Black Stars goalkeeper’s trainer. Ahinful thinks the sporting public should do away with revisiting the past spats between the two so as to avoid re-igniting the episode.
“If he has forgiven or forgone whatever happened between the goalkeeper’s coach and himself, why do we still talk about it? Let’s not try to inflame this issue to be worse. At the end of the day, he decided to come back. He gave his reasons as to why he was not coming and now, he is coming so obviously, I believe he has forgotten about it,” Ahinful said in an interview with LUV FM.
The former national star believes Kwarasey holds no grudges against Nassamu and it won’t affect his selection because the squad is picked by the coach and not the goalkeepers’ trainer.
“I am very much sure he has not put it at the back of his mind that he has an issue with the goalkeeper’s coach. It is Avram Grant who is in charge. If he decides that Kwarasey will play, fine. If he decides Razak Braimah or Ofori (Richard) will play, it is the [head] coach who decides and not the goalkeepers’ coach,” Ahinful emphasized.
The Major League Soccer title winner has appeared 22 times for the Stars since making his debut against Brazil in an international friendly in 2011.
