It was announced last week that Ghana had reappointed former international Otto Addo as head coach of its national team, this time in a more substantive capacity in charge of the Black Stars.
Addo finds Ghana in the exact same state he picked them up nearly two years ago: in the aftermath of a disastrous 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON 2024) campaign, needing reconstruction, and with a game against arch-rivals Nigeria in their next outing.
And the squad Addo — expected to sever ties with his current employers Borussia Dortmund, where he currently works as part of the club's technical staff, to focus fully on the Ghana job — has named for the upcoming match with the Super Eagles is somewhat different to that which he assembled the first time around.
The stakes are lower this time — back in March 2022, it was a ticket to that year's FIFA World Cup which was on offer — but there is no quarter given whenever these two West African giants square up.
Regardless of what the occasion may be, so it goes without saying that Addo believes he has put Ghana's best foot forward against a Nigeria side that themselves need to find a new manager to replace the one they lost post-AFCON 2024, Jose Peseiro.
Addo rings the Ghana changes, forced or otherwise
Half the players Addo picked for the 2022 World Cup play-off tie missed out this time, with the more conspicuous exclusions being goalkeeper Richard Ofori, skipper Thomas Partey, and winger Joseph Paintsil.
Partey’s absence is probably no surprise, as the midfielder hasn't been part of the setup for a while now, even missing out on the last AFCON with injury.
He only returned not so long ago, and it's perhaps not surprising that he'd want to focus on winning back his place in an Arsenal midfield, powering the Gunners through a promising Premier League title charge.
Leaving out Ofori, Partey’s deputy with respect to the captaincy, wouldn't be held against Addo by Ghanaians, given the Orlando Pirates back-up goalkeeper isn't the most popular person in his homeland right now, considering the hand he quite literally had in Ghana crashing out of the group stage at the AFCON in the Ivory Coast.
Paintsil — who Addo controversially left out of the final squad of his first Black Stars tenure, which he named for Qatar 2022 — is out, too, but only because he needs to complete some necessary immigration documentation following his recent switch from Belgian club Genk to Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy.
Ten of the players who featured in the Ghana squad for the last AFCON are out, including in-form Athletic Bilbao forward Inaki Williams, whose unavailability has been attributed to a wish to “rest and fully recover from recent injury setbacks.”
New faces for Black Stars & real doubts
If there is a net positive in not having all those guys, it is that Addo gets to try out some new faces.
There are two uncapped goalkeepers — Bolivia-based David Akologo and Asante Kotoko's Frederick Asare, the only home-based invitee — on the roster.
Hammarby centre-back Nathaniel Adjei (on loan at Lorient in France), Rangers midfielder Mohamed Diomande (set to make his transfer from Nordsjaelland permanent in the summer), and forward Ibrahim Osman (another Nordsjaelland gem who is on the verge of making the British Isles his home, having agreed to join Premier League outfit Brighton & Hove Albion when the season ends) are all in for the first time.
There has been some talk in the Ghanaian media, though, about whether there is a genuine chance of the Black Stars snatching Akologo and Diomande from countries that have a strong claim on them — the former is currently in the camp of the Bolivian national team that he just decided to represent, while the latter is from the Ivory Coast despite spending his formative years at the Right to Dream Academy in Ghana — but we'll know soon enough.
Ghana will follow that March 22 game against Nigeria in Marrakech, Morocco, with another friendly, Uganda the opponents, in the same city four days later.
