Former Middlesborough captain, George Boateng, says he missed out on a chance to play for the Black Stars of Ghana because the Ghana Football Association made no attempts to convince him.
Boateng, 44, was born in Ghana but moved to the Netherlands as a child to live with his father.
He joined the Feyenoord academy and played for the Holland U-18 teams.
But it wasn’t until he turned 25 that he made his full international debut for the Dutch national team.
Boateng says the 7 year gap was a window the GFA missed to convince him to switch to Ghana.
“As a young star, when I made my debut in the Feyenoord first team, nobody in the GFA ever came to me or sent a letter to express their interest, to say George Boateng is one of our players, he was born in Ghana, he is eligible to play for us.
“Can we please ask him or invite him for a game? “Such a thing never took place.
“When I was 18 and I debuted, the Dutch national team did that, they invited me to come and play for the under-18 team, which I did, he said on The Tracker on Citi TV.
“The player is not the one who is supposed to make the initial approach to the GFA, to ask if I can play for the team,that is the unorthodox way.
“The professional way is that the federation will send an invite because it is supposed to be an honor for you to be invited to play for your country.
“So in that seven years, I could have made my mind up and played for Ghana,” he concluded.
Boateng made his international debut for the Netherlands in a 1–1 draw with Denmark in November 2001 and earned a total of four caps.
He currently works as the U-18 coach for Aston Villa.