Black Stars coach CK Akonnor has disclosed that he has a core of 40 players he will be working with during his two-year mandate.
The former Ghana international in January was given the Black Stars coaching job on a two-year contract to help bring back the lost glory.
He replaced Kwasi Appiah who he once worked under as deputy in the Black Stars’ AFCON 2021 qualifying matches against South Africa and Sao Tome and Principe last year.
While Kwasi Appiah was slated for drafting too many players into the Senior National team, Akonnor insists he will be working with 40 players and within the said number he will be changing based on their performances.
“We have 40 players in our data and I think 40 should be a good number but within the 40 we can be changing.”
“But we will keep the number 40 and we will be looking at it as time goes on we will be looking at performance which will be the most important thing,” he told Joy Sports.
Also, the 46-year-old tactician has sent a word of caution to footballers that they will have to merit their call-ups.
“I will not call players based on their names you know because he is CK Akonnor and he is playing in Manchester United so I should invite him, he told Joy FM.
“He is at Manchester United and what is he doing there? Is he playing? Is he regular? Is he playing in the first team or second team or scoring?”
“And you look at someone who is playing at Asante Kotoko and someone who is there and is not playing you see it will be a big challenge for me,”
CK Akonnor, former Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko coach has been tasked to win the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations and also qualify the team to the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.