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Ghana international, Alfred Duncan has revealed that the current crop of players for the national are hungry for success and rubbished claims that they are money conscious.

The Black Stars have one of their worse tournament in 2019 Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Egypt following a quarter-final elimination by Tunisia.

The development prolonged Ghana’s wait for a trophy at senior international level since 1982.

The current generation of Black Stars players, have been often tagged as money conscious and not too keen to help end the trophy drought for Ghana.

Duncan who made his Black Stars debut under Kwesi Appiah in November 2012 has described the situation as frustrating but disagrees with claims the players don’t really care.

The 27 year old who is currently contracted to Italian side Fiorentina says winning a trophy for the nation is a conversation that features prominently whenever the players converse.

“Obviously it’s something that is very frustrating because most at times, even when we are not at camp and we are in our various clubs, sometimes we get the opportunity to talk to some of the players, (and) it’s something we talk about the most,” Duncan told Citi FM in an interview.

“It’s something we also have in mind because most of the players also want to be great like the likes of Abedi Pele…obviously we used to hear about them.

“Even having our team manager Stephen Appiah next to us, you also feel like I will like to win something with the national team or you want to get to the level where the old players got to that made that what they are today; that got them the names they have today,” he concluded.

Alfred Duncan has 8 caps for Ghana after making his debut in November 2012.

Ghanaian striker Jordan Ayew is elated after scoring his ninth goal of the season in Crystal Palace’s 2-0 win over AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday.

Milivojevic put the visitors in front thanks to a splendid direct free kick in the 12th minute before Ayew finished off a brilliantly executed team move to give the Eagles all three points.

The win saw the Eagles seal their fourth victory in a row for the first time in the top-flight history at the Vitality stadium.

Crystal Palace are now just four points adrift of fifth-placed Manchester United, who currently occupy a Europa League spot for next season.

This season, Jordan Ayew has scored nine goals in 29 appearances for Palace.

The striker is Ghana’s top scorer in the Premier League with 25 goals, leapfrogging Leeds United legend Anthony Yeboah to achieve the feat.

Crystal Palace will travel to Anfield to face Liverpool on Wednesday in their match week 31 fixture.

Ghana Coach Charles Kwabla Akonnor has promised to give local-based players the chance to play for the Black Stars.

In recent times players in the domestic leagues have struggled to earn a place in the Black Stars.

Akonnor who spent all his coaching career in Ghana with Premier League teams such as Asante Kotoko, Hearts of Oak, Dreams FC, Division one side Sekondi Eleven wise has urged the local-based players to prove their worth in order to earn a place in his team.

“My personal target as the Black Stars Coach is to develop individual players to be better and competitive. That will resultantly affect the collective team”

“I also have space for the locally based players because I played mostly here and coached all my live here which has earned me the Black Stars job”, he told GBC.

“But every player especially the locally based ones should take full advantage of any opportunities they are given”, he added.

The Black Stars squad for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt had only one local-based player named in the squad.

CK Akonnor hopes to change that during his time in office as Black Stars coach.

Source: Ghana Soccernet

Former Heart of Lions head coach, Ken August has revealed that Coach Kwasi Appiah’s decision not to involve experienced coaches during his time with the Black Stars caused his failure.

Coach James Kwesi Appiah was given the Black Stars job for the second time in 2017 and tasked to guide the team to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament and win it.

Unfortunately, the gaffer only managed to lead the team to the Round of 16 and was knocked out by North African side Tunisia.

Though he was allowed to work with the national team for a few more months, he was subsequently shown the exit door when his contract expired at the end of December 2019.

Sharing his thoughts on why Coach James Kwesi Appiah failed with the Black Stars, Coach Ken August who is the Organizing Secretary of the Ghana Coaches Association has noted that the gaffer’s decision to work without experienced coaches is a big factor.

“Akwasi Appiah did not involve experienced local coaches in his work. He never even invited us to observe his training. He failed to support our quest to be represented at AFCON even though we appealed to him. C. K. Akonnor should learn from his mistakes”, the veteran coach told Akoma FM

Source: footballghana.com