Kingston was a regular starter for the Black Stars between 2002 and 2010, featuring in 41 games and netting six goals.
He was sent off in Ghana’s 1-0 victory over Senegal in the 2006 AFCON after becoming involved in a brawl with Senegal right-back Habib Frédéric Beye.
Confederation of African Football (CAF) rejected the appeals by both Kingston and Beye because they did not lodged it in time. Beye was also slapped with a four-game ban.
Head coach, Milovan Rajevac named him in a provisional squad that camped in France prior to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa but was left out of the team once more.
“If Laryea were in the game, I’m sure we would have gone somewhere, I’m not saying this because I have a soft spot for him. If Laryea was in the team, it would have been a different ball game, you saw it when we played, it was unbelievable, the four of us (Michael Essien, Stephen Appiah, Sulley Muntari, Laryea Kingston) we played without positioning, it was beautiful.” Appiah told Joy News.
“When I look back, I feel we were not complete even though we appeared in the 2006 and 2010 Africa and world cup games. We all know Laryea knows how to play, I’m not even taking that into consideration, I’m saying that he should have been there because of the sacrifices he made for the team.
Stephen Appiah went ahead to reveal that they did not have the requisite knowledge to have fought the ban on behalf of Laryea Kingston, something he greatly regrets up till now.
“I wish we could go back and correct certain things, I think we were naïve because we didn’t know certain rules in the game, later I watched a world cup where Rooney was banned but was still taken to the World Cup if we had that knowledge, we would have appealed his ban," Appiah miserably added.
By: Pascal Nii Gogo Amoah
