Former Black Stars midfielder, Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, has voiced concerns regarding the method of squad selection for Ghana's senior national team.
There has been a noticeable trend in Ghanaian football, where there's an increasing reliance on foreign-trained talents due to a perceived shortage of high-quality players emerging from the local system to join the Black Stars.
This trend has resulted in a limited number of players in the current national team setup who have prior experience representing Ghana in junior national teams.
Agyemang-Badu, a former FIFA U-20 World Cup champion, has criticized the absence of a coherent strategy for nurturing and maintaining a competitive senior national team. He believes there is a need for a paradigm shift in this regard.
He reminisced about a time during Ben Koufie's tenure when there was a structured five-year development plan that yielded talents like Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari from the youth ranks. Agyemang-Badu himself was part of the successful U-20 team that clinched the World Cup in 2009.
"We were then integrated into the senior team to learn from the products of Koufie's development plan. When the time came for them to retire, we were prepared to step up," Agyemang-Badu recalled during an interview on UTV.
"However, it's been 15 years since that U-20 triumph, and unfortunately, we haven't seen an U-20 squad as formidable as the one from 2009. This lack of continuity in youth development is indicative of the serious issues plaguing Ghanaian football," he concluded.