Former Black Stars goalkeeper, William Amamoo has disclosed why he performed poorly in Ghana’s friendly game against Japan which saw him exit the Black Stars for good.
The Black Stars lost that friendly game by 4-3 to Japan following an emotional day for the goalkeeper in the second half.
Amamoo, now a licensed goalkeeper’s coach in a segment on Happy Sports named ‘Where are they’ on Happy 98.9 explained what led to his poor performance,
“I was part of the qualifiers and with just five games to finish the qualifiers that is where I lost my dad. I had already received five invitations from Ghana so due to the promise I made to my dad, I decided to honor all the five invitations before I bury my dad.
“Some of the players knew about my situation at the time and Richard Kingston had promised to give me some minutes in the game to honour the memory of my dad”.
“Richard Kingston told me he would give me 45 minutes in the game to honour my dad. So we went straight to the Japan game after our qualifier. Richard Kingston didn’t get injured, he wanted me to be in the post so my sorrow will go. After assisting Asamoah Gyan to score the second goal in the game, I broke down in tears because of the thoughts of my dad.
“I wished he was alive to see me play. Honestly, I lost focus in the game as I was so much in tears”.
“Sometimes when players are invited to the national team the managers should also assess them psychologically”, he added.
Amamoo played a vital role in Ghana’s qualification to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.