Abrefa Gyan, the uncle of Felix Afena-Gyan, has provided an explanation for the player’s decision to turn down a call-up to the Black Meteors last month.
The forward, who plays for Cremonese, was one of eight foreign-based players who were invited to play in the CAF U-23 Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] qualifiers against Algeria.
Ghana went on to qualify for the tournament, which is set to take place in Morocco later this year. However, in a recent interview, Ibrahim Tanko, the head coach of the Black Meteors, revealed that Afena-Gyan had declined the invitation, with the player’s management indicating that he was not yet ready for the games.
While it had been reported that Afena-Gyan’s refusal was due to his omission from the 2022 World Cup squad, Abrefa Gyan has now confirmed that this was partially true.
According to Afena-Gyan’s uncle, the player was emotionally affected after being left out, as he had already made sacrifices for Ghana during the World Cup playoffs against Nigeria.
“I would beg the media to be patient with the boy. I would urge them to look into what the authorities said to persuade the boy to play for the Black Stars,” said Abrefa Gyan in an interview with Kumasi-based Pure FM.
“We’ve all heard how difficult it was for the FA to approach Afena-Gyan and persuade him. We also know Mourinho’s intention to shape the boy and why he wasn’t ready to play for the national team at the time, but the authorities did everything they could to entice him into the team.
“And, as everyone can attest, his performance was excellent [against Nigeria].
“However, if you are a coach who isn’t good at dealing with issues in the locker room, the team will always have issues.
“Even if you wouldn’t give him an invite, you should go and explain things to him to psyche him up based on whatever you promised him to convince him. Assuring him of future call-ups, for example. Meeting his parents and agent to speak with him would be more beneficial than simply selecting your players and ignoring him, giving the impression that he can choose to play or not, and you don’t care,” he lamented.
