President of the Ghana Football Association, Kurt Okraku has met up with Southampton’s Mohammed Salisu in the United Kingdom to discuss his future with the Black Stars.
The aim of the hang-out was to convince Salisu one more time to come and represent his country of birth.
The 22-year-old first rejected a call-up to the national team in December 2019, citing injury problems and has subsequently abstained from the team.
Amid rumours that Salisu was considering playing for Spain instead of Ghana, his family released a statement on April 26, 2021, unequivocally reiterating the defender’s commitment to Ghana.
He later confirmed in an interview with Mozzart Sports Kenya that he would be proud to play for the Black Stars.
“I’ll be so proud to play for my country, to play with Ghana, the national team,” the defender said.
“But I think this is not the right moment to play in the national team. I think I need to focus on the club side because I am young, I think I need to focus on the club first and then after, when everything is fine, I can go and play for Ghana.”
In January, this year, King Faisal chairman, Alhaji Grusah revealed that Southampton’s central defender allegedly rejected his attempts to get him to accept a Black Stars call up asking if he would allow him to play for the national team if he were to be his son.
Most recently, in an interview with Bernard Avle on Point of View on Citi TV, the Head of Communications at the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Henry Asante Twum confirmed that the country has tried numerous times to convince Southampton defender, Mohammed Salisu to play for the Black Stars.
“We’ve made overtures, about four or five times. C.K Akonnor tried, he wasn’t successful, Milovan tried, and he wasn’t successful,” he said.
In April 2022, Southampton boss, Ralph Hasenhüttl, stated that ‘it does not help’ that Mohammed Salisu did not take part in Ghana’s qualification journey to the 2022 World Cup, suggesting playing for Black Stars now will look opportunistic on the player’s part.
It remains to be seen if the former Valladolid centre back will finally accept to play for the Black Stars of Ghana ahead of the AFCON 2023 qualifiers and FIFA World Cup to be hosted in Qatar later in the year.