A former Black Stars midfielder, Derek Boateng has slammed the Ghana Football Association (GFA) claiming the Cremonese forward has been poorly despite turning down Black Meteors call-up.
Ahead of the CAF U-23 Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] qualifiers against Algeria, the former AS Roma was named in Ibrahim Tanko’s squad but the 20-year-old rejected the call-up.
Reacting to Afena-Gyan’s decision to turn down the call-up, Boateng explained that he fully supports the decision of the player.
According to him, GFA has poorly treated the promising forward after he was axed from the squad despite playing a vital role in the country’s qualification for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“I really think Ghanaians haven’t been fair to that boy so right now that he has turned down an invitation, I support it. Football now is not about going to the field and performing a lot of things adds up that people don’t care about and only blame players that they don’t perform,” the former Fulham midfielder told Asempa FM on Sports Nite Show.
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“Football is about the brain so if you don’t have a sound mindset you can never perform. In our two matches against Nigeria, he was our best player. He was the player that was fighting four Nigerian defenders because we were playing one top. He did everything possible, we qualified for the World Cup and they didn’t invite him and now they want him for under 23 and his management said he is not ready,” he stated.
Mr. Boateng urged GFA to send a delegation to Italy to convince the player to play for the Black Meteors if the country is determined to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris.
“If the FA thinks about him and his mental issues, they have to take a plane there and talk to him so that he feels important. This under-23 AFCON that they want to go, they will need him if they want to win. They have to call him not on phone but by going to see him in person. He needs to feel that we care about him because these are the things we do that make us lose good players. He is a young player so if you do that to him, then you are killing him. The FA know the right thing to do”, Derek Boateng said.