Ghanaian born George Boateng explains his absence from Black Star duty

Former Ghanaian-born Dutch midfielder, George Boateng, has revealed that his inability to feature for the Black Stars of Ghana was because the Ghana Football Association never invited him.

The former Middlesborough captain was born in Ghana, but moved to the Netherlands as a child to live with his father, where he joined the Feyenoord Academy and later played for the Holland U-18 team.

“As a young star, when I made my debut in the Feyenoord first team, nobody in the GFA ever came to me or sent a letter to express their interest, to say ‘George Boateng is one of our players, he was born in Ghana. He is eligible to play for us. Can we please ask him or invite him for a game?”, Boateng said in an interview with Citi TV.

“Such a thing never took place. When I was 18 and I debuted [at club level], the Dutch national team did that, they invited me to come and play for the under-18 team, which I did.

He continued, “The player is not the one who is supposed to make the initial approach to the GFA to ask if I can play for the team, that is the unorthodox way.

“The professional way is that the federation will send an invite because it is supposed to be an honour for you to be invited to play for your country.

“So in those seven years, I could have made my mind up and played for Ghana,” he added.

Boateng marked his maiden international debut for the Dutch senior team at age 25 in a match against Denmark in 2001.

The current U-18 coach for Aston Villa earned a total of four caps.