Former Ghana international Sam Johnson has urged Black Stars coach Chris Hughton to widen his player monitoring beyond the Ghana Premier League to find some bright young players.
Having signed a 21-month contract, the 64-year-old assumed his role as the Black Stars coach last month with a doubleheader against Angola in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.
To the surprise of many, his 25-man roster for the games did not feature a single local player. Hughton, however, promised to keep a close eye on the local game to inspire his future choices, which he has done by attending some Ghana Premier League matches in recent weeks.
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Sam Johnson, on the other hand, believes that ignoring players from the lower ranks would be a mistake because competitions at that level could generate equally great players who could star for the national team.
“Everybody wants to bring his player to Hearts or Kotoko or the big cities but those that we are not expecting them to be there, they are now controlling the league.
“So we need to go there and bring them also because the talent is all over not only in Accra or Kumasi or the big cities,” Johnson told Radio Gold.
Ghana will play their fifth match of the 2023 AFCON qualifiers in June as they aim for their 24th appearance.