Black Stars coach, Kwasi Appiah held his first training session with the senior national team yesterday with sixteen players at the Accra Sports Stadium.
The session was Appiah’s first with the Black Stars ahead of his first competitive game, an African Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia scheduled for Sunday, June 11 at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi.
The foreign-based contingent of the team who participated in the session included deputy Black Stars captain, Andre Ayew, Abdul Majeed Waris, Afriyie Acquah, Daniel Amartey, Frank Acheampong, Jordan Ayew, Rashid Sumaila, Yaw Yeboah and Thomas Agyapong.
The training session lasted for an hour and started shortly after 3.30 pm with first deputy coach of the Black Stars, Ibrahim Tanko putting the players through various sprint and dribbling drills in the centre circle while goalkeepers trainer Richard Kingson trained the goalies at the Black Stars Square end of the pitch.
The team was later split in two for a quarter pitch match supervised by coach Appiah which saw Yaw Yeboah (FC Twente), Majeed Waris (Lorient), Thomas Agyapong NAC Breda), Jordan Ayew (Swansea City) and many others finding the net.
In an interview after training, deputy captain Andre Ayew said he was delighted to be working under the coaching stewardship of former players including Kwasi Appiah, Ibrahim Tanko, Richard Kingson and Stephen Appiah.
Fourteen players were absent from the session and they are expected to join their teammates in the coming days.
The absentees were Adam Kwarasey (Brondby), Harrison Afful (Columbus Crew, USA) Lumor Agbenyenu (Munich 1860, Germany), John Boye (Sivasspor, Turkey), Jonathan Mensah (Columbus Crew, USA), Jerry Akaminko ( Eskiserhispor, Turkey), Mohammed Abu (Columbus Crew, USA), Isaac Sackey (Alanyaspor, Turkey), Thomas Partey (Atletico Madrid, Spain), Ebenezer Ofori (Stuttgart, Germany), Kingsley Sarfo (Sirius, Sweden), Godsway Donyoh (Nordjaelland, Denmark), Asamoah Gyan (Al Alhi, UAE), and Raphael Dwamena (FC Zurich, Switzerland).
