Black Stars: They are not strangers - Saanie Daara speaks on new players who have switched nationalities

11.07.2022 LISTEN

Former Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association [GFA], Ibrahim Saanie Daara, has said the new six players who have completed their nationalities to play for the Black Stars are not strangers.

Six players including Inaki Williams, Tariq Lamptey, Mohammed Salisu, and three have confirmed their switch to the Ghana national team, the country's football governing body announced last week.

Having completed their nationality switches, these players have been addressed by some section of football fans as opportunists who want to play because the team secured qualification to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

However, Saanie Daara says some of these players have been itching to play for Ghana long ago even before this time, and should not be called as such.

“It is a welcome idea [to bring these players on board]. There’s this thought that a lot of these players came because we had qualified for the World Cup. It could be 90% true,” he told JoySports.

“I am also aware that players like Eddie Nketiah came to the Ghana U-17 team and was told that he was not cut for it several years ago. Tariq [Lamptey] several years ago had been sending me messages that he wanted to play for the junior national teams of Ghana before England invited him. It should tell you that a lot of these players have affection for the country. Maybe we didn’t have the opportunity to court them when they were young [and] that opened them to more opportunities.

“We should not see them as people who are traitors or as opportunists. A lot of them love Ghana. Some of them even before this issue of the national team came, come to Ghana for holidays. They come because they love the holidays… These people are Ghanaians. [Regardless of where they were born] they are Ghanaians.”

Stephen Ambrosius (Hamburger SV), Ransford-Yeboah Koningsdorffer (Hamburger SV) and Patric Pfeiffer (SV Damstadt 98) are also available for selection by the Black Stars Technical team.