CK Akonnor eulogizes Kwasi Appiah after qualification to 2022 AFCON

Black Stars coach Charles Kwablan Akonnor has refused to take full credit for the team’s qualification to the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations, praising his predecessor Kwasi Appiah for getting the team off to a bright start.

Akonnor and his charges wrapped the qualifiers up with a resounding 3-1 victory over Sao Tome and Principe at the Accra Sports Stadium.

The result ensured that Ghana finished top of Group C with thirteen points, one point more than second-place Sudan.

In a post-match interview, Akonnor praised Kwasi Appiah for his role in getting the team to qualify for the tournament which will be hosted by Cameroon.

Akonnor said that the first two victories chalked by the Black Stars under Kwasi Appiah made the task a bit easier for him.

"I would like to, first of all, thank my former boss Kwasi Appiah who started the qualifiers, winning two games."

"He’s the reason why we just needed to win one and draw to make it and I want to acknowledge him for everything,” he said.

CK Akonnor also said that the focus of the technical team now is to build a solid team for the AFCON.

Akonnor says he is satisfied with the current pool of players and will only hand call-ups to new players under exceptional circumstances.

After I got the job, I have chances of trying a lot of players and today was exceptional. We’ve had the chance of giving the local players a chance to prove themselves and I think in all fairness, they’ve done well. From now on, it is not about trial again. We are not going to be picking new players unless there is something dramatic. We are going to focus on the chunk of players we have.