CK Akonnor recounts failed Ghana attempts to get Cody Gakpo to play for Black Stars

Former Black Stars coach, Charles Akonnor has opened up about his unsuccessful attempt at convincing Cody Gakpo to switch nationality allegiance to Ghana.

Cody Gakpo is one of the high-in-demand Dutch young players in Europe and according to Akonnor, he approached the PSV Eindhoven winger to convince him about his Black Stars project before the 23-year-old winger made his debut for the Netherlands in 2021.

CK Akonnor revealed that Gakpo who at the time was playing for the Netherlands U-21 team rejected Ghana's offer and opted to play for his birth country because he believed he had a chance with the Netherlands senior team.

“Yes we tried to let him play for Ghana but he ended up rejecting us for the Netherlands. This was about a year ago when he was at the junior level,” Akonnor said during his work as a pundit for the Netherlands and Senegal World Cup game.

21-year-old Cody Gakpo was awarded the Man of the Match in his debut World Cup game against Senegal, scoring the first goal in the Netherlands' 2-0 win over the Terenga Lions of Senegal.

The Manchester United target has now made 10 appearances for the Netherlands national team since making his debut in the 2020 Euros against North Macedonia and has scored 4 goals.

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