In defense of Owusu-Abeyie

I am compelled to believe that Inter Milan's Mario Balotelli is dragging his feet over the Black Stars invitation for one simple reason - security. His fear may stem from the way Ghana treats players regarding their invitation into the senior national soccer team.

History has it that after courting prospective players for a long time, the marriage ends midway, a classical example is the case of Spartak Moscow's Quincy Owusu Abeyie, who demonstrated brilliance in the African Cup of Nations held in Ghana barely two years ago.

Affectionately referred to as Quincy, and born to Ghanaian parents, he featured for the Netherlands junior national side (Jong Orange), in the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Described by FIFA.com as "a bit special... full of power, pace and bags of sumptuous skill", Quincy was profiled as one of the best players of that FIFA U-20 Championship.

All of a sudden, the player, who announced his presence in the 26th Nations Cup, has been relegated to the background, and he comes no where near the team, when there is a roll call for national assignments.

His absence has raised eyebrows among soccer faithful, and the question crying for a definite answer is, whether the door has been closed on him perpetually?

Joe Tex Frimpong is another player who has suffered a similar fate, and one would not be far from wrong to assign Balotelli's reason for declining the national invitation, to what has happened to Owusu-Abeyie and others.

On Friday 5 January 2007, Quincy went to Ghana to meet with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) officials, engaged them in talks over the role he could play to help Ghanaian football, and discussed switching his allegiance to play for Ghana.

The first attempt by the GFA to convince him to feature for the Black Stars at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, hit a snag, following the player's earlier appearances with the Netherlands U-20 side at the 2005 World Youth Championship

On January 10, 2008, just ahead of the 2008 African Cup of Nations, FIFA approved Quincy's request to switch to Ghana. Chelsea FC midfielder Michael Essien was the first to congratulate the Dutch-born forward.

Other players followed by pouring bottles and buckets of water on Quincy to officially welcome him into the team, amidst wild cheers from team officials. Quincy was selected for Ghana's 2008 African Cup of Nations squad, and was in the team that defeated Nigeria on February 3, 2008, advancing to the semi-finals.

He scored his first international goal in the third place match of the 2008 African Cup of Nations, where Ghana defeated Ivory Coast 4-2.