Ghana Under-23 assistant coach, Michael Osei has strongly defended the technical team’s over-reliance on foreign-based players in their bid to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The Black Meteors are set to participate in the 2019 Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations where they have been pitted in Group A alongside hosts Egypt, Cameroon and Mali.
At the moment, an 18-man squad of home-based players have been assembled to commence preparations with their colleagues plying their trades outside Ghana expected to join later.
Explaining the rationale behind picking a limited quota of the local players with whom they hold long preparations for games with during the qualifiers, the assistant to head coach Ibrahim Tanko said it has been due to the fact that there is no domestic competition which keeps such players fit enough for high-profile games.
“The teams we are going to face are active and have prepared for more than five months, so we can’t gamble and use our local-based players for such an international tournament. No way,” Osei told Atinka FM.
“In any case, we didn’t rely on the local-based players in our qualifiers. In our games – against Togo, Gabon and Algeria – we didn’t use them. The foreign-based players played all these matches because they are active. I don’t see the qualms about this.
“Look, it’s not easy as people see it. If you’ve been a footballer before, you will understand we can’t use the locally-based players for such international tournament,” he added.
The U-23 Afcon is scheduled for November 8-22. The top three teams will qualify to represent Africa at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
