Head coach of the Black Starlets of Ghana Paa Kwesi Fabin has disclosed how difficult it was for him to drop four players from the final squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup slated for India from the 6th to the 28th of October.
25 players were selected for the training camp in Abu Dhabi but according to the FIFA rules, 21 players were to be presented as the final squad for the tournament and Paa Kwesi Fabi had the arduous task of picking his final team.
Speaking to Happy FM’s Odiasempa Kwame Oware, who doubles as the team’s media officer, Paa Kwesi recounted how difficult it was for him to prune down the team.
“The most difficult thing in my coaching career is to drop some to players for a competition. This is because you will be with them for a while and unfortunately, they get dropped. In fact, it was difficult for me but the requirement demands that we present 21 players to FIFA out of the lot. The whole technical team conferred on the final selection of the players but I must admit it was a very difficult task.” Paa Kwesi Fabin revealed.
He advised the four players who were dropped from the squad to not give up but rather fight hard for successive competitions.
“I will tell them that they should never give because they have been dropped from the squad who will represent the nation in India but they should rather draw inspirations from Samuel Inkoom who was dropped from Starlets squad on so many occasions but he never gave up and eventually became an integral part of the Black Satellites team that won the African Under 20 Championship and the World Cup in 2009 which was staged in Egypt and later became part of the Black Stars team. Their elimination from the squad should motivate them to work harder for the various age competitions like, U-20 and the Olympic team. It’s never late for them. As under 17 players, they have a long way to go”. He told Happy FM.
The following players were dropped from the squad;
Evans Sarfo-Asakwa Deportivo
Emmanuel Antwi-Charity Stars
Rudolph Blagogee-Maamobi Stars
Isaac Antah-Young Wise
The players who were fortunate to make into the final squad had got their Jersey numbers
Jersey numbers
1)Ibrahim Danlad
2)John Otu
3)Gideon Acquah
4)Edmund Arko Mensah
5)Najeeb Yakubu
6)Eric Ayiah
7)Sulley Ibrahim
8)Kudus Mohammed
9)Richard Darko
10)Emmanuel Toku
11)Mohammed Aminu
12)Abdul Razark
13)Gabriel Laveh
14)Bismark Owusu Terry
15)Gideon Mensah
16)Kwame Aziz
17)Rashiid Alhassan
18)Mohammed Iddris
19)Ibrahim Sadiq
20)Isaac Gyamfi
21)Michael Acqueye
