Usually, when a coach is tasked to build a formidable national team for a major tournament, he does so with the best players available to him, with a special focus on local talents.

But where such local talents are not available or are unconvincing, the coach is allowed to supplement with foreign based players.

In this case, these players scouted beyond the borders of the country must be in top form and prove beyond reasonable doubt that they are far better than the locals.

Again, such players must also show some commitment and dedication to the national call.

A coach can however, decide to ignore this system in cases where there is insufficient time for the exercise, when there is a policy that forbids him from inviting certain crop of players, or if he finds himself in a position where he has no say on the players selected for him to use.

Recently, Coach Maxwell Konadu was tasked to build a Black Satellites team for the ongoing WAFU B U-20 championship in Cote d’Ivoire, a tournament which also serves as a qualifier for the 2027 Africa U-20 Championship which Ghana is hosting.

With that status, the Black Satellites become automatic candidates and rightfully, the focus should have been on a team to be groomed for the ultimate.

The sub-regional tournament did not actually oblige Konadu to rely on foreign based players, most of who are on pre-season assignments with their respective clubs.

Also, Konadu was under no misperception about quotas to allot local or foreign based players. It was very clear that the tourney was for the locals.

With this background, he is believed to have selected the players that formed the team that represented Ghana at the championship.

Sadly, Konadu and his boys disappointed woefully at the championship, failing to march his words against performance on the field.

Exiting just after the group stage came with little surprise. That has been the pattern for the national juvenile teams in their respective championships for now.

What left tongues wagging, however, was Konadu’s claim that lessons from the championship would help build a “stronger and more competitive squad for next year’s TotalEnergies CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations.”

The confusion lied in his admission that “the squad which competed in Côte d’Ivoire is unlikely to be the same one that represents Ghana at the 2027 TotalEnergies CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations.”

It would have made a lot of sense to rather build a team that uses the WAFU B Championships as a platform to prepare for the main championship next year, than selecting a team that in his own words is unlikely to compete.

This is a very common feature in other jurisdictions. The English FA, for instance, would have used an Under-18 team for the WAFU B, knowing the impact that experience would have on the team.

So clearly, the experience and lessons Konadu spoke about would be non-existent and would not help the team in anyway because if he happened to be in charge of the Ghana 2027 championship team, he would be supervising an entirely new team.

From where I sit, Konadu and whoever played any role in assembling this team got everything wrong and must be reminded that there would be no assurances that the next team would excel in the championship.

By Andrew Nortey