Two young Ghanaian footballers, who were lured to Europe by notorious Italian player agent Demonico Ricchi almost four years ago to pursue professional careers, are virtually scraping out a living in the Italian town of Udine, with the agent nowhere to be found.
The two, Issa Rahaman and Akwasi Okyere, both 20 and former junior national team internationals were sold for $20,000 each to top Italian Serie A club Udinese in 1997 and 1999 respectively but have been abandoned to their fate.
Caught between a spiral of total neglect by officials of Udinese on one side and a renege of responsibility by Ricchi who has gone "awol" on them, the lads are forced to rely on handouts from club President, Pierre Puzzo to survive, Chronicle gathered.
Chronicle further learnt that their monthly salaries of $3,000 each have not been paid for some time and attempts to get the club to pronounce on their status have proved futile, neither would they volunteer information on the current arrangements holding them.
Ricchi who has been blacklisted by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is believed to have left his native Italy for Luxembourg where he is currently based.
Issa has served the years in his contract while Okyere has one and half years more to serve.
Issa and Okyere were members of the U-20 national team that emerged victorious in the 1997 African Youth Championship hosted in Ghana. Issa was also a member of the 1997 silver-winning team during the U-17 championship in Egypt.
Both played for Obuasi Goldfields and Kumasi King Faisal in Ghana.
Ricchi until two years ago was the manager of top Ghanaian internationals like Mohammed Gargo, Samuel Osei Kufuor, Emmanuel Duah and a host of others.
Almost all these players broke off with him with very horrendous and agonizing tales to relate.
Confirming the story in separate interviews via phone from their Italian base both players asked for the intervention of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and possibly FIFA in the matter.
"It is like we are being taken for granted. When we asked Udinese officials about their plans for us they tell us to see Ricchi. The last time we saw him was over one year ago. He only speaks to us on the phone.
"The last we heard from him was three weeks ago when he spoke to us on phone," Akwasi Okyere recounted.
Since joining Udinese, Issa for example has been loaned out to several European clubs including French club side, Auxerre. According to him not even a dime was paid to him from these transactions.
He returned from one such spell at Holland club Degraafschap after spending eight months and again railroaded to FC Benezola in the Swiss league between the June 2000 and February this year.
In all clubs he has featured for, as per this arrangement, no information is directly given to him as to duration of the loan period and when he is expected to return to Udinese.
The preponderance of such cases has been a matter of concern for officials of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and FIFA.
In the May 2001 edition of the CAF news, CAF condemned the practice and asked all local affiliated associations to launch a crusade to stamps it out.
"There are also in Africa, real false agents whom neither the contracted players, and even less the club managers or those of the associations, ask to present their FIFA licence.
Thus since August 1991, Ghanaian football has been under the thump of a false agent of European origin settled in Luxembourg and who has 80 per cent of expatriate Ghanaian players under contract."
Two young Ghanaian footballers, who were lured to Europe by notorious Italian player agent Demonico Ricchi almost four years ago to pursue professional careers, are virtually scraping out a living in the Italian town of Udine, with the agent nowhere to be found.
The two, Issa Rahaman and Akwasi Okyere, both 20 and former junior national team internationals were sold for $20,000 each to top Italian Serie A club Udinese in 1997 and 1999 respectively but have been abandoned to their fate.
Caught between a spiral of total neglect by officials of Udinese on one side and a renege of responsibility by Ricchi who has gone "awol" on them, the lads are forced to rely on handouts from club President, Pierre Puzzo to survive, Chronicle gathered.
Chronicle further learnt that their monthly salaries of $3,000 each have not been paid for some time and attempts to get the club to pronounce on their status have proved futile, neither would they volunteer information on the current arrangements holding them.
Ricchi who has been blacklisted by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is believed to have left his native Italy for Luxembourg where he is currently based.
Issa has served the years in his contract while Okyere has one and half years more to serve.
Issa and Okyere were members of the U-20 national team that emerged victorious in the 1997 African Youth Championship hosted in Ghana. Issa was also a member of the 1997 silver-winning team during the U-17 championship in Egypt.
Both played for Obuasi Goldfields and Kumasi King Faisal in Ghana.
Ricchi until two years ago was the manager of top Ghanaian internationals like Mohammed Gargo, Samuel Osei Kufuor, Emmanuel Duah and a host of others.
Almost all these players broke off with him with very horrendous and agonizing tales to relate.
Confirming the story in separate interviews via phone from their Italian base both players asked for the intervention of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and possibly FIFA in the matter.
"It is like we are being taken for granted. When we asked Udinese officials about their plans for us they tell us to see Ricchi. The last time we saw him was over one year ago. He only speaks to us on the phone.
"The last we heard from him was three weeks ago when he spoke to us on phone," Akwasi Okyere recounted.
Since joining Udinese, Issa for example has been loaned out to several European clubs including French club side, Auxerre. According to him not even a dime was paid to him from these transactions.
He returned from one such spell at Holland club Degraafschap after spending eight months and again railroaded to FC Benezola in the Swiss league between the June 2000 and February this year.
In all clubs he has featured for, as per this arrangement, no information is directly given to him as to duration of the loan period and when he is expected to return to Udinese.
The preponderance of such cases has been a matter of concern for officials of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and FIFA.
In the May 2001 edition of the CAF news, CAF condemned the practice and asked all local affiliated associations to launch a crusade to stamps it out.
"There are also in Africa, real false agents whom neither the contracted players, and even less the club managers or those of the associations, ask to present their FIFA licence.
Thus since August 1991, Ghanaian football has been under the thump of a false agent of European origin settled in Luxembourg and who has 80 per cent of expatriate Ghanaian players under contract."
