11 Top Players Axed By C.K Akonnor Ahead Of Ghana, Mali Friendly Showdown In October
Black Stars head coach, C.K Akonnor, today named a 23 man squad for the country's friendly encounter with Mali in October.
Akonnor handed debuts to Benson Anang, Alexander Djiku, Emmanuel Lomotey, Kamal Deen and Yakubu Mohammed who plays for Azam FC.
No local player was handed a call up due to the truncation of the 2019/20 Ghana Premier League.
In Akonnor’s first Black Stars team, he called four locally-based players: Richard Attah (Accra Hearts of Oak), Mohammed Yahaya (Aduana Stars), Habib Mohammed (Kumasi Asante Kotoko), and Kwadwo Amoako (Ashgold SC).
The Black Stars of Ghana will be facing the Eagles of Mali in an international friendly game with Ghana’s last competitive match played in November against São Tomé and Príncipe.
The Black Stars were supposed to player Equatorial Guinea as well in a friendly but the Guineans announced their decision to pull out, leaving the GFA searching for new opponents to fill the spot.
This forms part of Black Stars preparation ahead of their 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sudan in November.
However, Akonnor has excluded top players in his 23 man squad for the friendly.
These players regularly made it to the squad of previous Black Stars coaches but have failed to make it to C.K Akonnors squad list.
Below are players that failed to make it to C.K Akonnor’s squad:
- Christian Atsu
- Kwadwo Asamoah
- Baba Rahman
- John Boye
- Harrison Afful
- Jonathan Mensah
- Afriyie Acquah
- Felix Annan
- Mubarak Wakaso
- Asamoah Gyan
- Alfred Duncan