Afena-Gyan was not handed late call up for Black Meteors v Algeria games - Frederick Acheampong

Management Committee Chairman of the Black Meteors, Frederick Acheampong has said Felix Afena-Gyan was one of the few foreign players who was handed an early call-up for Black Meteors games against Algeria in the 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

The 20-year-old attacker was part of eight foreign-based players called up for the fixture.

However, the Cremonses forward opted out after his camp informed the technical team the former AS Roma forward is not ready.

“Afena Gyan’s invitation was not late, I have followed a lot of discussions around the media landscape that the FA handed him a late call-up," Frederick Acheampong told Citi Sports.

“He was one of the first foreign-based players we invited, the President of the Ghana Football Association spoke to me personally and told me that I should get to the technical team so we work around the foreign-based players early enough in terms of writing letters to their clubs so they released them on time.”

“Ibrahim Tanko spoke to him personally, long before we engaged the likes of Salim Adams, Ernest Nuamah and the likes.

“Afena Gyan’s manager relayed the information to Ibrahim Tanko that the player was not ready to play for the team," he added.

Ghana has qualified for the 2023 CAF U23 AFCON which will be staged in Morocco from June 24- July 8, 2023, in Morocco in June later this year with a 2-1 aggregate win over Algeria.

The result gives Ghana another opportunity to compete for a slot to play at the 2024 Summer Olympics which will staged in Paris.

Ghana missed an Olympic Games ticket narrowly in 2019 after losing on penalties to Ivory Coast in the semi-finals of the last U23 AFCON held in Egypt.