Ahead of the all important 2022 World Cup qualifying play-off against the Super Eagles next month, Ghana’s hopes of having Chelsea forward Callum Hudson-Odoi to switch nationality now hang in the balance with the 21-year old refusing to commit his international future to play for the Black Stars.
After helping Chelsea to win the Club World Cup, Hudson was asked if he would wait for an England call-up to Qatar 2022, he said:
“I don’t know. At the end of the day, we will wait until that time comes. At the same time, I’ve just got to focus on the club until we get that far.”
This will come as a blow to the Ghana Football Association which is desperate to qualify for a fourth World Cup next November, particularly after a disastrous showing at the AFCON in Cameroon where the Black Stars failed to make it beyond the group stage.
Hudson-Odoi was initially rumored to have pledged his allegiance to Ghana and availability for the much-important clash with the Super Eagles of Nigeria following a meeting between his father and Technical Advisor of the Black Stars, Chris Hughton.
Another high-powered frantic effort to win him over was when the Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo tweeted:
“On Monday, 7th June 2021, Ghanaian-born Chelsea footballer, Callum Hudson-Odoi, paid a courtesy call on me at Jubilee House, the seat of our nation’s presidency. Amongst others, I urged the Minister for Youth and Sports to explore the possibility of having Callum switch nationality, and play for the Black Stars.”
Various sources in Ghana reveal that all efforts to make Hudson-Odoi to budge have failed with Hudson-Odoi preferring to leave his options wide open as to whether he should play for Ghana or England with which he has two senior caps and was a youth international from U-17 to U-21.
Another player Ghana is desperately looking to have is Southampton’s Salisu Mohammed but the defender has repeatedly turned down invitations to return to the Black Stars since 2019 when he dropped out of the squad over injury concerns. He also refused to join the team that ultimately failed at the AFCON recently.
