The Professionals Footballers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has held talks with the new Minister of Youth and Sports, Hon Elvis Afriyie Ankrah on how best they could make available their expertise to the country they once served. The meeting was attended by Stars of the last two decades including UEFA Champions League winner and Sports pundit Samuel Osei Kuffuor, Former Stars skipper Charles Akunnor, Augustine Arhinful, Yaw Preko, Kwame Ayew, Tony Baffoe and more. Though the meeting was a closed door one, the leadership of the PFAG through its president Tony Baffoe later revealed to the press that the focus of the meeting was to see how best they could avail themselves to transform the nation’s football landscape as is seen in other established football nations. For him, these former players have the right credentials to manage any of the national football teams and it was about time that these talents were tapped into to the benefit of the nation. He was happy that some of his mates like Akwasi Appiah and Maxwell Konadu now head the technical team of the National Side but called for more to be done in this direction. “I am delighted that Akwasi and Maxwell are doing a beautiful job with the Senior National Side but there are more of the guys around who can do an equally good job if they are involved. Just take a good look at the current Nigerian set up that just won the African Cup of Nations. Coach Stephen Keshi, Assistant Daniel Amokachi and goalkeeper’s trainer Ike Shoronmu are all former Internationals. I am not saying that all former national players are good enough to manage the various national sides but let us take a second look at those who have the credentials to do the job by giving them an opportunity to prove themselves.” On his part, the new Minister said the nation should forget about the Stars performances in South Africa and look ahead to impending assignments. He made it emphatically clear that a 3rd World Cup was a must and that all steps should be made possible in making it happen. He made references to the President’s state of the nation address where he called for a revamping of the stars set up to ensure that targets are met as far as the Black Stars were concerned. He added that as a new person on the job, he was happy to listen, take advice; learn, listen to other perspectives as well as other stakeholders including the Ghana Football Association. For him, he learnt a lot from his meeting with the players and would want to speak to others which will in turn inform subsequent actions’ and decisions to be taken in the near future. Minister Afriyie Ankrah is scheduled to meet Stars of the older generation between the 60’s and 80’s sometime next week.