No Reason For Dede Sideline?

Andre Dede Ayew

Black Stars manager Goran Stevanovic has named his squad for the Ghana double-decker, but conspicuously missing in the squad is in-form Dede Ayew.

The Olympic Marseille playmaker will not be on the flight to Khartoum for the Nations Cup crunch tie, and that has thrown the entire sporting populace into a heated debate.

Many have assigned groin injury to his exclusion, while others think he is in the bad books of the Serbian trainer who believes the player feigned injury in the Brazil-Ghana international friendly.

But a close source to Dede, who put up a stellar performance in their Champions League game against Borussia Dortmund last Wednesday night before home crowd, has revealed that the player has not received any invitation for the double assignment.

The Stars are tied on points (13) with their Sudanese counterparts, making the Khartoum decider a gargantuan one.

Indeed, the exclusion of Dede will have a telling effect on the team owing to the fact that a player's absence can make a whole lot of difference in football, some pundits have observed.

Most fans were of the view that Plavi should have buried his pride and invited the player for the 'Sudan war' regardless of the quantum of the brilliant player's 'sin'.

After all, what he needs most now is not his hanker to institutionalize discipline in the team, which is a good thing though, but results, to ensure that the Black Stars do not miss the Gabon-Equatorial Guinea bus.

 By Kofi Owusu Aduonum