9 Top 5 European League teams to lose players to Black Stars AFCON squad

• Coach of the Ghana Black Stars, Milovan Rajevac on Tuesday disclosed his choice for the 30-man squad to be representing Ghana at the upcoming AFCON
• The squad saw as many as 25 foreign based players named and only 5 Ghana based players named including obvious choice Issahaku Fatawu
• Of the number of foreign based players in the squad, nine of them play in teams from the top five European leagues in England, Spain, France, and Italy

From the 30-man squad announced by Ghana Black Stars Coach, Milovan Rajevac for AFCON, nine of the players play for clubs from the top five European leagues.

With as many as 25 out of the 30 players named in the squad plying their trade outside Ghana, and only five playing in the country, it is expected that quite a number would be from Europe's top five leagues.

The top five leagues in question are the English Premier League (EPL), the Italian Serie A, the Spanish Laliga, and the French League 1, with none from the German Bundesliga.

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The nine players playing in the top five leagues named in the Black Stars squad are Thomas Partey, Jordan Ayew, Daniel Amartey, Gideon Mensah, Alexander Djiku, Baba Idrissu, Abdul Salis Samed, Felix Afena-Gyan, and Kamaldeen Sulemanana.

The Black Stars will open camp on Wednesday, December 23, 2021, to begin preparations for the tournament, with the four-time Africa champions choosing Doha, Qatar as the destination.

The Black Stars will play three international friendly matches in Qatar to give Coach Milovan Rajevac the opportunity to assess his squad before the tournament scheduled for Cameroon from January 9 to February 6, 2022 kicks off.

The team will then finish their preparations with a final trial game against the reigning African Champions and recently crowned FIFA Arab Cup champions, Algeria on Wednesday, January 5, 2022.

Ghana is seeded in Group C alongside Morocco, Gabon and Comoros, with the Stars opening their AFCON account with a crunch face-off with North African side Morocco in the opening group C game in Yaounde on January 10.

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Below is the full squad:

Goalkeepers: Joseph Wollacott (Swindon Town), Lawrence Ati-Zigi (St.Gallen), Manaf Nurudeen (Eupen), Richard Attah (Hearts of Oak)

Defenders: Andy Yiadom (Reading FC), Philemon Baffour (Dreams FC), Baba Abdul Rahman (Reading FC), Gideon Mensah (Girondins Bordeaux), Daniel Amartey (Leicester City), Alexander Djiku (Strasbourg), Jonathan Mensah (Columbus Crew), Abdul Mumin (Victoria Guimares)

Midfielders: Baba Idrissu (Real Mallorca), Thomas Partey (Arsenal FC), Mubarak Wakaso (Shenzhen F.C), Edmund Addo (Sheriff Tiraspol), Mohammed Kudus (Ajax Amsterdam), Daniel Kofi Kyere (FC St. Pauli), David Abagna (RTU), Abdul Samed Salis (Clermont Foot)

Wingers: Andre Ayew (Al Sadd), Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace), Abdul Fatawu Issahaku (Dreams FC), Kamal Deen Sulemana (Rennes), Samuel Owusu (Al Fayha)

Strikers: Richmond Boakye-Yiadom (Beitar Jerusalem), Benjamin Tetteh (Yeni Malatyaspor), Felix Afena Gyan (AS Roma), Maxwell Abbey Quaye (Great Olympics), Joseph Painstil (Genk).

AS Roma's teenager Afena-Gyan will decline AFCON

According to Sportsbrief.com's checks and analysis, the chances are that AS Roma's teenage sensation, Felix Afena-Gyan, would in all likelihood decline the Black Stars call up.

Afena-Gyan turned down the invitation citing a desire to continue his development under Jose Mourinho at AS Roma. While having to wait on his first 90 minutes outing for AS Roma, chances are that is still his priority.