ATTENTION ON YOUTH DEVELOPMENT IMPORTANT FOR GHANA SOCCER

From Accra and Algiers to Zanzibar and Zululand, Africans have wrested control of soccer and through the rise of different playing styles, the rituals of spectatorship, and the presence of magicians and healers, have turned soccer into a distinctively African activity.

For so many years, Ghana has produced quite a number of talented young footballers, many of whom attention has not been paid to.

Only a few like Michael Essien, John Boye, Sulley Muntari and Samuel Osei Kuffour have managed to make it through this miasma though the overwhelmingly majority, have either choked or remained what they have probably ever been.

The likes of Ransford Osei, Kwaku Essien, Tawrik Jibril have all been left to their own fate.

This was the same ordeal Christian Saba and Owusu Afriyie went through which led to opportunistic agents luring them into fairly money-spinning yet misguided moves which they could have avoided. Players when signing such deals do not think of where they will be playing, all they think of is moving out of Ghana to make more than they make here. Recently players like Dominic Adiyiah and Samuel Inkoom have all suffered from this menace.

Consider, for instance, the case of Ransford Osei, a member of Ghana's U20 squad that won the youth championship in Egypt in 2010. Ransford was the top scorer at the African youth championship and put up dazzling performances at the world stage, assisting most of the goals scored by Ghana. He was picked up by Sundowns of South Africa yet it appears he did not make any head way and has returned to the Glo Premier league where started.

FIFA originally organises youth tournaments; these competitions are to provide exposure for young talents to polish their skills alongside their peers from elsewhere.

This is where I believe our scouts are to be at work but what do we find? The likes of Robin Quaison and Danny Welbeck have all been lost by the country to Sweden and England respectively because the FA’s attention has only been on laurels.

In order to have advantage over our competitors more attention should be paid to aid the development of the players like what is done in Germany and Spain.