Black Stars and Accra Hearts of Oak legend Sam Johnson has expressed concern over Ghana’s winless Asian tour, warning that the team’s back-to-back defeats could hurt the country’s FIFA ranking.
Ghana lost 2–0 to Japan and followed it with a 1–0 defeat to South Korea, completing the Kirin Cup without a point.
Speaking exclusively to Citi Sports, Johnson said the performances are worrying—especially with the 2026 FIFA World Cup approaching noting that the results raise legitimate concerns about Ghana’s readiness.
“In the first place, as a player or as a country, definitely we are going to be worried that can things go well which is not good for going to the World Cup.”
Beyond this he stressed that the immediate consequence is Ghana’s likely drop in the next FIFA ranking.
The only problem that I have is that our rankings will go down. More you lose, more you go down that is the only problem.
Despite the disappointment, Johnson urged Ghanaians to consider the circumstances surrounding the defeats.
“Some of the players in there are not the key players we want to take to the World Cup so that alone should change the perception because we don’t have our set, that is also a factor.”
He added that many of the players on the tour were newcomers to the Black Stars setup and should be given time.
Some of them it’s their first time coming, some of them I don’t even know where they are coming from but they are Ghanaians and we have to allow them to play. Let’s see what happens in the other friendly games and then we can judge.
Johnson described the Asian friendlies as part of an ongoing testing phase for Otto Addo and his technical team.
We are doing an experiment and the experiment is not all that okay for us. We have to change it and see how best we can get our players to do the best they can.
Ghana will now turn attention to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with the Black Stars set to discover their group opponents on December 5.
