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| Ghana : BARWUAH no the Black Stars |
The 17-year-old Ghanaian born striker Mario BARWUAH who plays for Italian club Milan’s Inter turned down the opportunity to have his first cape with the Black Stars for last Tuesday’s friendly against Senegal. And yet coach Claude LE ROY had named him in the squad for that match, but he declined the invitation and expressed his desire to play for Italy when he qualifies for an Italian passport next year. He was born in Italy to Ghanaian parents, and he has a Ghanaian passport.
In a letter to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) he said he thanks the Ghanaian authorities for giving him an opportunity to play for the Black Stars, but he told them that he is not interested at this moment. “I’m waiting to play for Italy national team when I turn 18 next year,” added he. BARWUAH’s snub doesn’t prevent LE ROY from hoping to convince him to play for Ghana. Some sources say when he was coaching the Indomitable Lions he succeeded in bringing Samuel ETO’O to choose to play for Cameroon when the young striker had the option of playing for Spain.
Despite BARWUAH was fostered in Italy by a Brescia family at the age of three, LE ROY believes that the youngster would be better off playing for Ghana. “There is a serious tussle between BARWUAH’s biological parents and those who fostered him,” LE ROY told BBC Sport. He thinks that the GFA should try to prise the young striker from some elements who seem to have a clutch on him and reach him directly to tell him of their plans so that he will not regret playing for Ghana.
Samuel MBAJUM
(Source: BBC Sport, with Ibrahim SANNIE in Accra)
24/08/2007 |
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