Hunting for foreign-born Ghanaian players not the solution - Kwadwo Poku Mahala to GFA

Former Ghanaian international, Kwadwo Poku Mahala has kicked against the hunt for players from the diaspora for the Black Stars, urging leaders to revive the local football to produce talent for the national teams.

This comes after calls for Arsenal forward Eddie Nketiah to switch nationality and play for Ghana despite making his senior appearance for England during the last international break in October.


With calls for Eddie Nketiah to switch nationality growing, the former Asante Kotoko forward believes the chase for players from the diaspora should be halted and focus on reviving local football to produce more talent to feed the national teams.

“Even if we go for Lionel Messi to come and play for Black Stars, it won’t change anything. (Won’t win anything) We like already-made things too much. Let’s build our own well and stop this attitude of "today there is this player here there is this player there so we should go for him”, he told Kessben FM.

“Let’s build a good foundation, let’s make our own well. Let’s make the Ghana league well and we will get a whole lot of good players here. Local players are invited today, tomorrow they are excluded. We must be content with what we have and stop chasing players from abroad. So can’t we get a player from the pool of Ghanaian clubs who is better than Nketiah, he is playing for Arsenal and so what ”

“We should fix the problems in the national team and stop haunting diaspora players because it will not help us. Nketiah may be scoring because of the players around him at Arsenal but our case is different. Inaki Williams is scoring at Bilbao but he is struggling with Ghana”, he added.

Kwadow Poku played for Asante Kotoko from 2000 to 2003 and also rejoined the side in 2007 where he played until 2012. 

He also played in Denmark for  FC Midtjylland, Ikast FC, Skive IK, Tjørring IF and Ringkøbing IF.








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