{"id":761382,"date":"2022-01-22T03:30:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T03:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/22\/2021-afcon-ghana-has-no-messi-or-ronaldo-type-of-player\/"},"modified":"2022-01-22T03:30:39","modified_gmt":"2022-01-22T03:30:39","slug":"2021-afcon-ghana-has-no-messi-or-ronaldo-type-of-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/22\/2021-afcon-ghana-has-no-messi-or-ronaldo-type-of-player\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 AFCON: Ghana has no Messi or Ronaldo type of player"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"402\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/kurt-696x402.png\"   alt=\"Kurt Okraku\" title=\"Kurt Okraku\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kurt Okraku<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ghana Football Association (GFA) President, Kurt Okraku, says the best players were assembled for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) despite the team\u2019s early exit.<\/p>\n<p>The Black Stars, who were tasked to end the country\u2019s 40 years AFCON trophy drought, endured a poor run in the tournament, which culminated in a disappointing 3-2 defeat to Comoros in their final Group C game.<\/p>\n<p>The result saw Ghana finish at the bottom of their group after failing to win any of their three group matches.<\/p>\n<p>The quality of the players selected has been questioned following the Black Stars\u2019 early exit from the tournament.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>But Mr Okraku believes the country\u2019s best available players were the ones picked.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, if Ghana had a player as good as Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi somewhere, they would be invited to the Black Stars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe players who represented Ghana are the best players we have\u2026 if there is a Ronaldo or Lionel Messi type of player somewhere who will move straight to our first 11, just let me know and I will include him,\u201d\u00a0he said on Takoradi-based S<em><strong>kyy Power FM.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Speaking on <em><strong>Asempa FM<\/strong><\/em> on Thursday on the<em><strong> Ultimate Sports Show<\/strong><\/em>, the FA President rejected claims that Milovan Rajevac\u2019s squad was influenced by external forces.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the Serbian coach was the ultimate selector of the squad that played at the 2021 AFCON.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMilovan is the ultimate selector of players for the national team. When he names his squad, he sends it to a committee and justifies his call-ups to them. Nobody selects players for the coach,\u201d\u00a0the GFA boss told Asempa FM.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny Ghana coach that allows people to select players for him doesn\u2019t deserve to coach the Black Stars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMilovan and his assistants selected the players and gave us the best players available at this time. He selected players who are very dedicated and ready to serve our dear nation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"_UY7_QTDhbE\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"GFA, Bow your heads in shame for this AFCON mess, Don\u2019t talk anyhow - Fire for Fire on Adom(21-1-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_UY7_QTDhbE?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kurt Okraku Ghana Football Association (GFA) President, Kurt Okraku, says the best players were assembled for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) despite the team\u2019s early exit. The Black Stars, who were tasked to end the country\u2019s 40 years AFCON trophy drought, endured a poor run in the tournament, which culminated in a disappointing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":715855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[93,85,2297,731,2298,2751],"class_list":["post-761382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-afcon","tag-ghana","tag-messi","tag-player","tag-ronaldo","tag-type"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}