We are in crisis if our local league can't produce players for our youth team - Agyemang-Badu

Ex-Ghanaian international Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu has bemoaned that the country is in crisis if the local league can’t produce quality talents at the youth level who can excel at major competitions.

He made these remarks with regard to Ghana’s early exit from the ongoing AFCON U-23 tournament in Morocco.

The Black Meteors opened their Group A campaign with a 3-2 victory over Congo on Sunday, June 25, before suffering a 5-1 defeat to host Morocco on Tuesday, June 27, and drew 1-1 with Guinea on Friday, June 30, to exit the competition with four points.

Ghana has qualified for almost every major tournament in men’s football in the last four years, but the outcome leaves much to be desired, calling for huge criticism from the football fraternity locally.

According to him, the local league in Ghana should be able to generate quality players who will compete at the highest levels.

Agyemang-Badu further made an appeal to the football governing body to hold an emergency meeting to find solutions to the pending problem.

“How can we be so over-reliant on IMF (foreign-born and foreign-based) players at the youth level? If the local league can’t produce players for our youth football, then we’re in serious trouble,” he told Joy Sports.

“The GFA needs to organize an emergency meeting tomorrow and take stock of what is happening. Where our football is heading is dangerous”, he added.

He was an integral member of Ghana’s U-20 World Cup-winning team in 2009.

He last played for Ghana Premier League fold, Accra Great Olympics in February 2023, having enjoyed stints with Udinese and Verona in Italy, Recreativo Huelva in Spain, Bursaspor in Turkey, and Qingdao China.

LNS/OGB