Former Kotoko coach CK Akonnor
Former Ghana international Charles Kwablan Akonnor (C.K Akonnor) has opined that, colts and juvenile football are the foundations for the development of Ghana football, hence must be given the needed attention.
Akonnor who featured for the Black Stars from 1991 to 2001 said, Ghana’s failure to end the 37-year trophy famine is because the country is not giving enough attention to colts football which he is a product.
Speaking to Ghanacrusader Sports, the ex-Ghana captain reiterated that Ghana football would rise again if the foundation is given adequate attention.
“If we want to talk about the Black Stars, we need to go back to the grassroots, from the youth level; we talk about the junior teams, under 17, 20 and the 23 before the Black Stars.
“These are things we need to look at, know the days of Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari even our ‘supposed’ general captain (Asamoah Gyan) now, they progressed from one end to another and we got them to this level.
“Now you can see our youth level is not effective and that is the machinery, that is where we need to look at very well because once they get to the top, all we need is just maintenance. We need to groom the youth from the Black Starlets to the Meteors most especially, Colts football and I am an example.
“I played colts, to the U-17, 20, 23 and finally to the Black Stars. We need to look at it because if we focus only on the Black Stars, we will always make mistakes to talk about until we look back to the juvenile and fix issues there, we will always be in trouble,” he concluded.
