How Mourinho Tried to Stop Afena Gyan From Joining Black Stars Till Otto Addo Intervened With Presentation

Ghanaian sports journalist, Saddick Adams has claimed that AS Roma manager, Jose Mourinho was against the decision to draft Felix Afena-Gyan into the Black Stars in 2022.

Felix Afena-Gyan in March 2022 made his debut for the Black Stars in the FIFA World Cup play-off against the Super Eagles of Nigeria at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium.

According to Saddick Adams, Jose Mourinho was the reason why Ghana couldn’t get Afena-Gyan for the AFCON because he said the boy was young and was still going through his development process thus not ready for full-time senior team football.

“If you all remember his agent suggested to the GFA that Afena should be invited to play in the junior national teams before the Black Stars. There was a whole two weeks discussion on Felix Afena-Gyan and Mourinho said he wouldn’t allow the boy to come because he was on a developmental program.”

“Mourinho said Afena hasn’t reached the level to play senior national team because even at AS Roma he was gradually introducing him into the first team even after scoring two goals against Genoa. He said the boy was not even fit to play 40 minutes of competitive football and that is why he was giving him 20 minutes as a second-half substitute.”

He added that the Portuguese manager only agreed for Felix Afena-Gyan to join the Black Stars after Otto Addo who was the team’s head coach at the time did a presentation to Mourinho on the developmental plan he has for the boy.

“So Otto Addo drew up a plan for Afena-Gyan and sent it to Mourinho and he said he was only going to allow the player to join the Black Stars because of the presentation the coach did for him to see,” Saddick Adams said on Angel TV monitored by GhanaWeb Sports.

Felix Afena-Gyan in 2022 made 6 appearances for the Black Stars but missed out on the World Cup in Qatar and subsequently turned down a call-up to join the Black Meteors for the U-23 AFCON qualifiers against Algeria.