Alberta Sackey leads professionals

Accra, July 8, GNA-- Alberta Sackey, skipper of the national women soccer team, the Black Queens, on Tuesday led professional players in the team who have arrived in the country to the Winneba Sports College where the team is camping.

The players, Adjoa Bayor, Basilea Amoah Tetteh, Elizabeth Baido and Kulu Yahaya arrived from their base in the United States where they all play for the Morris College University team.

The arrival of the five players, according to information gathered by the GNA Sports, would be a major boast to Coach Oko Aryee , head of technical directors of the Queens, who has been anxiously awaiting their arrival to enhance the team's cohesive training. Coach Aryee in the last few months had chastised the Ghana Football Associations (GFA) for its inability to send down the players on time for him to build a strong squad ahead of their preparation towards the forth edition of the Women's version of the FIFA World Cup. Sources close to the GNA Sports has it that the five have been inactive for some months now as they do not involve in competitive matches in the States.

This was confirmed by skipper Sackey, the reigning African Female Footballer of the year, when the GNA Sports caught up with her. She said since the GFA assured them of their ticket to fly down three months ago after their academic calendar had ended, they declined to register for any competitions which would have kept them in shape. The skipper said they would need time to train and settle into the team.

Bayor, Baido and Sackey were influential in the teams' success at the biannual African Women Cup that saw the Ghanaians placing second after the Supper Falcons of Nigeria who hosted the event. In the tournament, Sackey scored a historic goal against the Falcons that handed the Nigerians their first defeat against any African team while Bayor scored the first extra time goal of the tournament when the Queens struggled to beat the Lioness of Cameroon 3-2 in a semi final tie.