Former Ghana international Derek Boateng has expressed concerns about the Ghana Football Association's (GFA) efforts to attract European-born Ghanaian players to the national team. Despite the successful recruitment of players like Inaki Williams, Tariq Lamptey, and Antoine Semenyo, Boateng believes the GFA needs a more structured plan to engage young players born in Europe.
Boateng pointed to countries like Germany as examples of proactive scouting and nurturing of young players with German roots. "Certain things are happening which should not be done or allowed, and I believe there is a lot more that must be done," he told Accra-based Kingdom FM. He lamented seeing talented players of Ghanaian descent, such as Kobbie Mainoo, Jeremy Doku, Jeremie Frimpong, and Nico Williams, representing European countries instead.
Sharing his experiences from scouting trips in the USA, Boateng observed other countries' efforts to identify and develop young talent with roots in their respective nations. "I have been in USA for a scouting job multiple times and I have seen expatriates also joining to scout players but they are doing that for their country and I know Germany are doing that," he said. He highlighted Germany's approach of actively scouting young players with German heritage and bringing them into the fold early to foster a sense of national identity.
"I was told that they are doing that because they want to bring all young players with their roots from Germany and after identifying them, they will camp them and by doing that, the players will know where they are coming from," Boateng explained. He criticized Ghana's lack of similar efforts, stating, "In Ghana, we don’t know how to do these things, and we keep losing players because we are not paying attention to how we can get them."
Boateng also emphasized the importance of engaging players and their families from a young age, rather than waiting until they have already begun their professional careers. "We must do a lot more, and we shouldn’t wait until they are grown up and playing before we start talking to them. By then, their parents will not even allow it because we were not there from the beginning, so why now?" he argued.
