Former Ghana striker, Yaw Preko, has compared Athletic Bilbao forward Inaki Williams to the legendary Asamoah Gyan ahead of the Black Stars’ fourth World Cup appearance in Qatar 2022.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is set to be held in Asia between November 20 and December 18.
Williams, 28, recently switched international allegiance to Ghana and he represented the Black Stars in the 3-0 friendly defeat to Brazil on 23 September at the Stade Oceane, France, and the 1-0 win over Nicaragua on 27 September at the Estadio Francisco Artes Carrasco in Spain.
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In an interview with Angel TV as quoted by Ghanaweb.com, Preko encouraged the Black Stars of Ghana to play to Williams’ strengths stating he is as resourceful as Gyan on the pitch.
Williams in action for the Black Stars against Brazil
“We should make good use of Williams and benefit more from him, he’s more like Asamoah Gyan,” Preko said.
Gyan is the all-time top scorer for the Black Stars of Ghana with 51 goals in 109 games.
Williams has been capped twice by Ghana. He has scored three goals and registered one assist in seven Laliga games for Athletic Bilbao so far this season.
Ghana are in Group H of the 2022 FIFA World Cup alongside Portugal, Uruguay, and South Korea.
Ghana have qualified for the FIFA World Cup four times; Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014, and Qatar 2022.
By Toju Sote
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COMMENTS
My advice to some of these African FAs jostling for foreign-born players is to try and be reasonable while at it. It is wrong to hand out spots to ”latter-day converts” at the expense of players who had toiled and sacrificed for the qualification, in the first place.
Africans should be aware that we are stereotyped around the world as ”dumb people”. We shouldn’t give credence to that.
I harken back to what one of Complete Sports journalist wrote late in 1993 soon after Nigeria qualified for its first World Cup when one John Salako who has at many times previously then rebuffed Nigeria’s approach to him to switch nationality and play for us, suddenly showed interest in playing for us. The CSN staff writer opined that our national team would not take Mr. Salako to the World Cup even if he was Pele and Maradona rolled into one.
That response to me is exactly the right message to send to some of these foreign-born players who see us as nothing but objects to be used when it suits their interests.