Black Stars of Ghana technical team member, Coach Didi Dramani explains why Kotoko youngster Danlad Ibrahim couldn’t report for the national assignment.
The Porcupine Warriors goalie recently declined from national team call-up ahead of the trip to Angola to play the Central African Republic following Richard Ofori’s injury.
There have been concerns about the fight for the local players to get the opportunity at the Black Stars but according to Didi Dramani the goalkeeper would have loved to make the trip due to Kotoko’s lack of backup goalkeepers but the management of the Reds blocked the move because should the ex-U-20 join the Black Stars, they only have Kwame Baah for their remaining matches whiles they were fighting for the title.
Explaining the issue, Coach Didi Dramani hinted at the reason why the management of the Porcupines blocked the goalkeeper to join the Black Stars in Angola.
“I don’t want to comment about this. I think that when you speak about it they will speak to the fact.
“For us, we saw that it is important to also think about the local productions that’s why we had Barnieh and Dennis Korsah; and in the future, we are looking even to see how players can have this opportunity as they would have been any other time to them. They were with us in camp and unfortunately they didn’t go with us to Angola. They had the opportunity to have their Visas and once you have the chance, you have a Visa which means that you can travel at any time. When you look at Danlad, for instance, Kotoko was just in the close of trying to win the league and also they don’t have many backups. If they don’t have backups then how will they release their goalkeeper?”
“Someone may not understand when Kotoko are playing without enough backups so sometimes everyone would have loved to come and serve the nation so is not anything wrong for the person turning down a call-up or not reporting. At least the reasons were there very cordial. It makes sense that they were not having that backup and is true. Is not just a pretentious thing”, he told Ghanasportspage.com.
Danlad Ibrahim has represented Ghana at the U17, U-20, and U23 levels before earning a call-up for the first time to the Black Stars in 2021.
Ghana will return to play a double header in the 2023 AFCON qualifiers in September against Angola and the youngster will likely receive another call from Otto Addo and his management depending on his performance.
The Black Stars finished third at the Kirin Cup after beating Chile 3-1 in a penalty shootout in Japan.
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