The Ghana Football Association(GFA) are still in pursuit of Southampton defender, Mohammed Salisu as they bid to have him play for the country.
The GFA have failed in multiple attempts to lure the 22-year-old to play for the four-time African champions. The most recent one was before Ghana's 2022 FIFA World Cup playoffs against Nigeria.
According to reports, Salisu had already given the technical team his word but had a late change of heart.
GhanaWeb, therefore, points out the four main reasons why the gallant center half is yet to honor Black Stars' invitation.
Two of the reasons have been confirmed by his uncle Yakubu Ahmed in an extensive interview with Sikka FM.
Some members of Black Starlet demanded money from his family before call-up
Yakubu Ahmed in the interview claimed that Salisu cannot let go of bad treatment by some by handlers of the national Under-17 team years back.
He said that Salisu was left out of the squad after the family failed to pay an amount demanded by the technical team of the Black Starlets.
“Certain coaches/ Technical Team/ Scouts were demanding for money from him(Mohammed Salisu) to be in the final squad of Ghana's Under 17 squad then.”
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Juju claims by his uncle
According to his uncle, fear of the alleged use of ‘juju’ at the Black Stars camp is one of the reasons Salisu has decided want to play for the Black Stars.
"Juju at Black Stars Camp is also part of the reasons why Salisu is not reporting for all Black Stars call ups, " he said.
He is not ready
Aside from what his Uncle has said, the player himself has already said he is not ready for national team football.
In an interview with MozzartSport Kenya in 2021 said, although, he will be proud to represent his country, he is waiting for the right moment.
“I’ll be so proud to play for my country, to play with Ghana, the national team".
“But I think this is not the right moment to play in the national team. I think I need to focus on the club side because I am young, I think I need to focus on the club first and then after, when everything is fine, I can go and play for Ghana.”
Since then he has not spoken about his readiness for the Black Stars.
Court issue
Mohammed Salisu's latest Black Stars rejection was said to be on the basis of the GFA allowing his youth club, Creative Soccer to contest his status.
Creative Soccer had initially petitioned the GFA that the player was wrongly signed by African Talents from their club before he was transferred to Real Valladolid in Spain.
Creative Soccer lost the case but decided to exhaust all legal means that the player was illegally floated from their club to join Africa Talent.
Salisu believes the FA should have dismissed the case and not allowed Creative Socer to pursue an appeal on an issue that cost him his move from Real Valladolid to Southampton.
Author: Emmanuel Enin
