The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has encouraged young female footballers to concentrate on their career and eschew acts that have the potential of prematurely terminating their football career.

He said that staying focused meant“staying away from unscrupulous men who would use sugar-coated or deceptive words to lure young girls into sexual relations and finally abandon them after making them pregnant”.

“Every young person is beautiful or handsome, until they begin to develop wrinkles as a result of old age so do not allow yourselves to be deceived by men who sing your beauty just for their own parochial interest”, he cautioned.

Mr Bagbin stated these when he donated some items to one of the oldest female football clubs in the Upper West Region, Real Crusaders Ladies Club, at his residence at Wa, on Sunday.

The presentation which included 18 sets of jerseys, 18 pairs of soccer boots, 18 sets of knee-high socks and five Federation of Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) branded balls, is testament of the Speaker’s love for soccer and commitment to the development of women football in the region and Ghana in general.

He said that he was a supporter of females’ progress in whatever chosen field and would love to see the girls work harder to attain high laurels in their pursuit of excellence.

Mr Bagbin charged the girls to concentrate on their training to become perfect and do away with unhealthy boy-girl relations that could truncate their journey to stardom.

“Aside your chosen career of football, you need to devote time to studying and ensuring that you attain academic qualification,”

 Even on the field of play, you need that intellect to be able to dribble and so you should not relegate education to the backyard,” he said.

The Speaker encouraged the girls to be disciplined and law-abiding so that they would not end their profession prematurely as had happened to other players.

The coach of the team, Mr Umaru Farouq commended the Speaker for the gesture and assured him that he would work together with his technical team to ensure that the girls progressed in football and education respectively.

The Real Crusaders Ladies Club was formed in 2005 at Wa and has since featured in the Ghana Premier League as well as the Division One League depending on its performance at the end of a season.

The team which has produced three players for the Ghana women’s national football team, Black Queens, as well as enabled many young girls to access scholarships for university education, is currently playing in the Division One League.

From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa