Following the furor over Ghana’s coach Milovan Rajevac exclusion of certain top ranked players from his 23 man list for next January’s Orange African National Cup, the Black Stars manager says he would rather go with fit players to the championship than recuperating stars.
He told africansportsdigest.com in Accra that there is no controversy about the list as being peddled since he has contacted the football authorities in Ghana and let them know why he had to take certain unpopular decisions on behalf of the team.
“I think any players picked for the African championship is justifiable. We want to present a team that would be active and not a liability. We want the best for Ghana,” Milovan said confidently.
The Black Stars will commence preparations for the tournament on December 28 in Nelspruit, in the north-eastern part of South Africa before leaving for Angola two days to the commencement of the Championship.
In the squad for the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, Angola 2010 key players like Captain Stephen Appiah and midfielder Sulley Muntari were dropped from the team.
Appiah is currently nursing an injury and his omission has been linked to his inability to recover in time for the tournament, whilst Muntari’s was not readily known.
In what look like a double speak, Milovan has included Chelsea midfielder, Michael Essien, despite being injured and the injury-prone John Mensah in his final team for the tournament which also has six members of the victorious Ghana U-20 side, Black Satellites at the FIFA U-20 World Cup held in Egypt in September.
They are Captain Andre Ayew, Golden Ball winner Dominic Adiyiah midfielders Emmanuel Agyemang Badu and Opoku Agyemang, goalkeeper Daniel Agyei and right-back Samuel Inkoom
Making a return to the squad is Bayer Leverkusen defender, Hans Adu Sarpei, who has not been called up since the Serbian took charge of the Black Stars in August 2008, whilst Moussa Narry of French side Auxerre and Rahim Ayew, eldest of Ghana legend, Abedi Pele are also confirmed.