In 2003, Real Madrid, few weeks after winning the La Liga title, signed English football’s biggest star at the time, David Beckham.

The €35 million deal sent shockwaves through the football world, as the Spanish giants added yet another superstar to their enviable collection. Beckham would join Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Raul, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos - the crème de la crème of football greatness in Los Blancos, with the mission of winning Real’s 10th European Cup title. 

Long story short, the project failed. The club were unable to win any trophy for the next three seasons, suffering elimination in the UEFA Champions League and exiting in the 2004 quarter-finals, and two consecutive exits in the Round of 16 in 2005 and 2006.

Lesson? A collection of talented individuals doesn’t guarantee a great team.

Dutch football legend, Johan Cruyff put it best when he said, “Choose the best player for every position, and you’ll end up not with a strong XI, but with 11 strong 1’s."

The current state of the Black Stars is an enigma at face value.

Talented players who play in some of the best leagues in the world, yet struggle year after year, coach after coach, in national team colors. 

But again, teams aren’t built by assembling the best players. 

A common philosophy, common goal, balance and chemistry are some of the key elements necessary for a successful team. 

Black Stars captain, Jordan Ayew’s exclusive with Joy Sports, highlighted some of the flaws in Ghana’s squad building in recent years and how it has affected the performance of the team during the period. 

Ayew compared the success of the Ghana team from 2010-2015 to the struggles of today, stressing the importance of the seamless transition between the core of the 2006 World Cup squad, which had the likes of Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari, to the introduction of players from the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup winning team, ie, Andre Ayew, Emmanuel Agyemang Badu and Jonathan Mensah, as key to the achievements of the former. 

“We don’t have the team we had between 2006 and 2019. 

“In 2010, the transition was smooth, as the U-20s joined a squad that already had a strong core. But this current transition has been radical. 

“We’ve seen about 10, 11 or 12 players brought in during various call-ups, he explained. 

That ill-planned, sudden and mass overhaul of the aging squad is one of the major problems facing the Black Stars today. 

Issues with team culture, managing pressure and team chemistry are still evidently palpable. 

Less than 10 of the current pool of players invited over the past 2 years have featured at a youth competition for Ghana at any level. This means the first time a huge majority of the current setup played with each other was at the senior level - a very worrying phenomenon. 

“Football has stages, and we are in a period of transition. The Head Coach [Otto Addo] has also come in with different ideas, so it will take time. 

“I don’t play with [Antoine] Semenyo or Inaki [Williams] at club level, so the chemistry isn’t there yet. We only have two or three days of training before a game, so it’s tough,” he added.

The verdict is damning, and the players are clearly aware of the structural issues, but their as Ayew said, their job is to play, so play they will. 

Catch the full interview here: