Coach for all: Avram Grant: My doors are opened to all

Black Stars Coach, Avram Grant has dispelled concerns that he has turned his back on locally-based players in his call-ups to the Black Stars.

In n exclusive interview with www.ghanafa.org upon his return from Europe, Grant said as far as he is concerned, there is no such classification as a local player or a foreign player when considering players for the national team, insisting that his target is to build a solid national team with the best.

"For me there is no local or foreign player; my doors are opened to all. All of them are Ghanaian players who need to give everything for their country," Grant said.

The Black Stars coach also welcomed calls by a section of the media for him to stay here and monitor domestic competition, but he explained his quest to build a winsome team meant he had to extend his stay and monitor lots of Ghanaian players who are based abroad.

"It's good that Ghanaians want me to be here. It's very nice to hear that," said Grant.

"But I need to do my job and my job is to do the best for the Black Stars. You know more than 90% of the players, when there are opportunities they go to play abroad, so they are playing abroad and I need to monitor them before we have official games and that's what I did."

"I did one week vacation and I monitored players after that. During this time, I was at the draw for the World Cup with the GFA. I worked very hard to monitor the players as we did before the African Cup and before Mauritius."

Grant also expressed concern at the frequency at which good players from the domestic league leave for foreign league, adding that when that happens, then he has to go and monitor these players.

"I saw a few league games and two African cup game of Hearts of Oak and Kotoko and I saw some good players. But when every player that has a good offer from Europe or other continent is going to play away from Ghana, I'm going to see him.

Grant, however, added that he still keeps his eyes on the domestic league through his assistants; Maxwell Konadu and goalkeepers coach Nassam Yakubu.

"This doesn't mean we don't monitor the domestic league too. My assistants are here and we are in contact always."

The Black Stars coach also maintained that any player who has to make it to the Black Stars, including locally-based players, has to be better than the present crop of players.

"I saw some of the players here and I must say that they are giving everything; few of the young players have a good future. But to take a player now to the squad Black Stars, you need to be better than what we have."

Credit: Ghanafa.org