Attracting foreign-born players for Ghana national teams – the Ibrahim Tanko perspective

Black Stars ‘B’  coach, Ibrahim Tanko wants the Ghana Football Association to be more proactive in their approach for young talents from abroad for the respective national teams.

The emergence of winger Jeremy Doku (recently capped by Belgium at the senior level) and Brighton right-back Tariq Lamptey in top-flight football has resurrected the foreign-born Ghanaian players’ debate in the country.

In an interview with Wontumi FM, Tanko revealed that the best plan to get such quality Ghanaian players is to follow their grassroots progress instead of waiting for them to hit the limelight.

“There are a lot of Ghanaian talents abroad especially in England, Germany, and Holland but we always wait for them to play first-team football before they get our attention.

“If we want to integrate them into our national teams, we need to start early.

“A player like Tariq Lamptey has the potential of playing for the England national team because he plays in England.”

Tanko continued: “In Germany, we have Oto Addo, Eric Addo in Holland, Adu Tutu is also in Austria and Razak Primpong in Denmark.

“If we ask these former players to speak to the youngsters, they can convince them because they have experience in dealing with players.

“I know Turkish FA have an office in Germany because they know they are Turkish players who are based in Germany. So if we do the same, we will get these players.”

Ghana, over the years, has lost some good talents to other countries such as Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea, England), Jeremy Duku (Anderlecht, Belgium) and others.

The recent players with such background to play for the Black Stars are Kevin Prince Boateng, Adam Kwarasey and Jeffery Schlupp.