Ghana provisional squad leaked. But coach denies

April 29th, 2010 | by: Gary | Comments Off

ESPN Blogs Ghana has intercepted a copy of an evaluation list sent to Ghana’s coach by German football magazine, kicker Sportmagazin. The list was part of an interview Milovan Rajevac granted to the magazine in Frankfurt on Monday, April 26. The full details of the interview would soon be published by the magazine in its World Cup Special Issue.

This is the first time the coach has spoken about his possible team for the FIFA World Cup.

There are some surprising revelations in the list, such as the fact that locally-based King Faisal’s Latif Mohammed has a 50% chance of making it to South Africa. The same applies to David Addy of FC Porto.

Captain Stephen Appiah’s chances were dependent on his fitness. The coach was quoted as saying: “Ghana would be a little surprised at my final squad.” This may be so because after looking at the list, Rajevac revealed that on a monitoring mission of Eric Bekoe, he came across Cofie Bekoe, who also plays at Petrojet.

Rajevac said he was highly impressed with the 22-year old.

He also admitted having headaches about the inactiveness of his captain as well as the injury worries of Mensah and Essien, reportedly describing the situation as ‘catastrophic’.

The Serbian tactician gave Richard Kingson a 100% chance of being at the World Cup despite the goalkeeper’s consistent bench-warming status at Wigan. Hans Adu Sarpei was also given a surety of admission into the team.

Unsurprisingly, John Painstil, Samuel Inkoom and Isaac Vorsah were all given a 100% rating as were Anthony Annan and Andre Ayew.

Crucially, the Serbian penned “100% IF HE WILL BE OK” against the names of John Mensah and Michael Essien respectively, confirming how highly he regards two of Ghana’s most experienced players.

The midfield quartet of Sulley Muntari (Internazionale), Kwadwo Asamoah and Emmanuel Agyemang Badu (Udinese) were also penned as sure bets by the coach, just as Kevin Prince Boateng was given a 100% mark.

Haminu Dramani had 75% written beside his name with the explanation that: “He is not playing much with Lokomotiv.”

For the strikers, Eric Bekoe (Petrojet) was given a 50% assigned to his name while regulars Asamoah Gyan (Rennes) and Matthew Amoah (NAC Breda) were all given the all-clear.

Following rumours about their possible inclusion in the team, Nana Akwasi Asare (Utrecht) had a decisive “No!” written by his name while Ahmed Barusso (Torino) had “30% or less” by his.

The mention of Bernard Yao Kumordzi (Panionios) was said to have drawn a curious look from the coach, after which he scrawled 50% and said: “But I really like him.”

Moussa Narry (Le Mans) drew a quick 50%, followed by: “lack of discipline.”

Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac was scheduled to release his provisional 30-man squad list for South Africa on May 14 and then name the final list thirteen days later.

In attendance during the interview were the interviewer, Milovan Rajevac himself and an interpreter.

The Black Stars coach did not speak English.

It is important to note as well that Rajevac said the annotations he had made were valid for now and that anything could happen between now and when the final list is named.

List Summary

Goalkeepers:
Stephen Ahorlu (90% chance of making it), Richard Kingson (100%), Daniel Agyei (100%)

Defenders:
John Paintsil (100%), Isaac Vorsah(100%), Lee Addy (90%), Nana Akwasi Asare (0%), Samuel Inkoom (100%), Latif Mohammed (50%), John Mensah (100% fitness permitting), Hans Adu Sarpei (100%), David Addy(50%), Karim Alhassan(50%),

Midfielders:
Michael Essien(100%, fitness permitting), Kwadwo Asamoah(100%), Sulley Muntari (100%), Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu (100%), Kevin-Prince Boateng (100%), Derek Boateng (75%), Anthony Annan (100%), Bernard Kumordzi (50%), Moussa Narry(50%), Haminu Draman(75%), Andre Ayew(100%), Stephen Appiah (100%, fitness permitting)

Forwards:
Asamoah Gyan (100%), Eric Bekoe(50%), Matthew Amoah(100%), Prince Tagoe(100%), Quincy Owusu-Abeyie (50%), Ahmed Barusso (30%)

Coach’s addition to list:
Cofie Bekoe (Petrojet)

Following the publication of the story, Ghana’s coach has denied it. He says:

“This is absolutelty not true and the list should be disregarded. We need to finish monnitoring first before I travel to Accra to discuss plans with my bosses. We have several delicate balances to make and these are only discussed with my bosses and not a German newspaper. Please ignore that publication.”

More to follow.