Dream FC right-back, Philemon Baffour
Philemon Baffour yet to make any appearance for Black Stars after 2-years
Black Stars knocked out of AFCON 2021 at Group stage
Kurt Okraku deny imposing players on Milovan Rajevac
The President of the Ghana Football Association, Kurt Okraku, has defended the inclusion of Dream FC right-back, Philemon Baffour in the Black Stars.
The 20-year-old has earned 8 call-ups to the senior national team but never made any appearance for the Black Stars.
Speaking in an interview on Asempa FM, the GFA president noted that Ghanaians have been unfair to a player who helped the Black Satellites with the U-20 AFCON and is also the vice-captain of Dreams FC.
Kurt Okraku explained that Philemon Baffour deserves to be in the Black Stars just like any other Ghanaian.
“I think you are being unfair to Philemon Baffour. The young man is a Ghanaian just like every other person. He deserves the opportunity. He is the vice-captain of Dreams FC. He is a U20 champion,” Kurt Okraku told Benedict Kwadwo Mensah on Asempa FM.
Though there have been widespread rumours that GFA president is the brain behind the inclusion of the Dreams FC player, Kurt Okraku has denied ever influencing player call ups under coach Milovan Rajevac.
“I’ve listened to a lot of commentaries about the players Coach Milovan selected for the tournament and I wonder why there are complaints. Coach Milovan and his technical selected the players for our country and they stuck by that philosophy and we supported them throughout,” Kurt said
He added, “Nobody selects players for the Coach, if a coach has handled Ghana previously and allowed players to be selected for him, then he doesn’t deserve to be the Coach.”
Baffour was named as part of Ghana’s 28-man squad for the 2021 AFCON tournament in Cameroon and still didn’t feature for the Black Stars.
On two occasions when the right-back position was vacant, Hearts of Oak captain Fatawu Mohammed and Daniel Amartey were used as a replacement while Baffour continued to warm the bench.
The local-based player also missed Ghana’s pre-tournament campaign in Qatar and joined the team two days to start of the tournament in Cameroon.