The collective bitterness of retired footballers towards the state has affected the fortunes of Ghana football on the international stage, ex-footballer Awudu Issaka has said.
Although the senior national team, the Black Stars, can boast of a rich crop of players, with most of them plying their trade in Europe, the team have failed to win the Africa Cup of Nations in over three decades.
Many have wondered why the team have suffered such fate with some suggesting that the team is cursed.
Speaking to Nana Romeo on Accra100.5FM, Awudu Issaka said Ghana’s flagging fortunes in continental and world football was the result of the country’s neglect of retired footballers, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet.
“The bitterness harboured by some retired national team payers is what is affecting Ghana football, but authorities are unaware. People are attributing the problems of the national team to winning bonuses but the problem is because we have ignored some old heroes who are dying in poverty one after the other,” he stated.
“An ex-national team player becomes ill and is bedridden and no sports official visits him. But they would visit his family immediately after his death,” he lamented, wondering: “What are we doing for ex-footballers?”
The former Ghana Under-17 gold medallist suggested that retired players be put in charge of colts football in the country and be paid to keep them busy and in employment.
Ghana has retired players whose help we need to groom up-and-coming footballers. Stephen Appiah, Sammy Kufuor, Mohammed Polo, Mallam Yahaya, among others, have skills. Let’s use them across the country. I’m in Sunyani so give me an Under-15 colts team in Sunyani to manage and do same across the country where other retired players reside to train players while you pay them to end their suffering,” he noted. “If we help them, God will make a way for the Black Stars.”
Awudu Issaka, nicknamed the Disco Dancer, was a prominent member of the U17 team that won gold in the 1995 FIFA World Cup in Ecuador.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com/100.5FM
