Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah's vision for squad competition bearing early fruits

Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah's vision of creating competition in the Black Stars looks to be bearing early fruits as there is intense fight for positions in the squad.

The team's training in Kumasi for the past two days have shown that the 25 players in camp are fighting for their positions.

Appiah, 56, has been supervising the training session of the team ahead of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia on Sunday.

Both home-based and foreign-based players are showing their best talent during training in their bid to grab a starting place in the squad.

The former Kotoko great included seven local players in his first call-up and dropped a number of top stars including goalkeeper Razak Brimah, Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, Mubarak Wakaso and Christian Atsu.

As many as ten players were handed their debut call-ups with many players coming from the local league while some young players abroad never given the chance getting the opportunity.

Former coaches have been accused of making players feel primadonas in the team - a situation Appiah intends to tackle.

'We have lot of talents in the country and I want to do my best by making good use of them and create competition in the team,' Appiah said last week.

'I feel in Ghana we can even have four players for one position,' he added.

Appiah's vision of creating competition for places in the team is showing early signs of bearing the desired fruits.

At this moment no player is certain of a starting place in the match against Ethiopia which will be played at the Baba Yara Stadium on Sunday.

Kwesi Appiah