Edna A. Quansah/Shadrack Sam, GNA
Accra, Sept. 2, GNA –
Stephen “Tornado” Appiah, former captain of the senior national team, the Black
Stars, has said they have discovered a lot of talents in the just ended “Betway
Talent Hunt” exercise.
He said Ghana can
boast of lots of talented footballers, but the major challenge, has been how to
unearth them.
Appiah made this
statement at the last tour of the Betway Talent Hunt exercise at the University
of Ghana Stadium, Legon.
The novelty event,
which sets out to unearth rising talents across the country was introduced last
year by Ghana’s forerunner in sports gaming.
This year’s hunt cuts
across the length and breadth of the country in search of young aspiring
footballers within the ages of 18 and 25.
This year’s Betway
Talent Hunt, has toured and recruited several talents from the Central region,
Ashanti region, Northern region, Brong Ahafo and the Greater Accra region of
Ghana.
In an interview with
the GNA Sports, the former Juventus superstar said, the exercise was good
initiative, which would help to discover talents for clubs, both in and outside
the country.
“When it comes to
talents, Ghana is the best. Our goal is seeing some of these players play
outside the country.
“We have seen lots of
talents so far. Last year at a point we were asking ourselves, are all these
talents in Ghana. This year Sunyani and Tamale have been great. Some of these
players have the qualities to play in the Premier League,” he said.
Maxwell Konadu, the
assistance coach of the Black Stars, said with proper infrastructure and
planning, a lot of talents would be discovered, since that has also been a
problem in the development of talents in the country.
He congratulated
Betway Ghana Limited, for the initiative, adding that he was not surprised
about the quality of talents discovered so far in the exercise.
According to the
organizers of the exercise, those who excelled would be recruited after being
tried and tested through a series of screening exercises by an experienced
scouting team led by the current technical coordinator of the Black Stars,
Stephen Appiah, Coach Michael Osei, Coach Eric Antwi of Lizzy Sports Complex,
Godfred Adoube, Sam Johnson, Mohammed Gargo and Coach Maxwell Konadu.
The winners of this
year’s Betway Talent Search would be drafted into the four Ghana Premier league
clubs sponsored by Betway Ghana.
The Betway Talent
Search falls in line with the outfit’s continuous effort to develop football in
Ghana.
GNA