The Ghana international legend believes the current crop of players of the four-time African Champions are not doing enough to merit the continent's coveted individual gong
Ghana great Ibrahim Sunday has intimated that it would take some time for the current Black Stars players to win the African Player of the Year award given their performances with the senior national team.
With the likes of Asamoah Gyan, Kwadwo Asamoah, Sulley Ali Muntari, Michael Essien and Stephen Appiah all missing out on the prestigious accolade during their active playing days over the past decade, the former Asante Kotoko kingpin is now pessimistic the award will continue to be an asset beyond reach for the current generation of active footballers in the west African nation.
''Maybe it’s the performance, it’s not enough for them to be selected,'' the 80-year-old legend opined in an interview with Pan-Africa Football. ''Generally, Ghana football has gone down so automatically there won’t be any possibility to select an African Footballer of the Year even though some of them like [Mohammed] Kudus and others are doing well in Europe but I think it’s not enough for them to be selected, that’s my opinion.''
The former Werder Bremen attacking midfielder has shared his thought on how to revive the dwindling fortunes of the nation's football development so as to annex the individual gong in the near future.
''As it is now, we have to go back and start again so that we will be able to jump the hurdle,'' Sunday stated. "To jump the hurdle, it is not easy now so we need to work very hard with our players, the management of our players and then the performance of the players and everything is important. I think we are not doing very well to be selected as one of the top players in Africa.”
Since the inception of the awards ceremony, lbrahim Sunday, Razak Abdul Karim and Abedi Ayew Pele are the three players to have won the coveted individual accolade for the four-time African Champions on the continent.
