Eli Avot
Former Hearts of Oak captain, Yaw Amankwah Mireku has expressed concern on the quality of players in the local league as a cause for the fallen standards.
Amankwah Mireku, speaking to Accra based Happy FM, bemoaned the quality in the league and expressed concern as to how levels have dropped since the early noughties.
The Ghana Premier League has experienced some level of decline since its peak days in the late 90s and early 00’s. The former Black Stars player and hearts of Oak legend reflected on how far behind we are and what we can do to turn the curve.
“The motivation is too low for the players and that is also affecting the performance of players in the Ghana Premier League. If teams are able to pay a minimum of Ghc 1,000 then players will stay, ” he suggested as a measure to reduce the trend of player exodus from the league.
” Right now there are too many amateur players in the league because of that. Most of them after a good season move out to play abroad because they want to make money to be able to take care of their families,” he continued
“For instance, lets take Victorien Adebayor of Inter Allies as a case study, his standard is higher than that of our players so we could tell the difference. His technique and style of play is higher than most of our players in the league and we have to blame ourselves,” he concluded.
Amankwah Mireku enjoyed an illustrious career in the Ghana Premier League having been a member and later on, captain of Hearts of Oak’s famous 64 batallion team that dominated the league in the late 90s and early noughties.
He also captained the side that won the maiden CAF Confederations Cup in 2005 against fierce rivals, Kumasi Asante Kɔtɔkɔ, having won the Champions League 5 years prior.
