Nana Kwesi Asare Snubbed?

According to Sporza, Eredivisie outfits Utrecht have completed the transfer of highly rated left back Nana Asare. The Ghanaian youngster currently plays for Belgian side Mechelen.

The Domstedelingen will part company with current left back Etienne Shew Atjon at the end of this season and were therefore in the market for a replacement. Asare will join Utrecht this summer. The 22-year-old started his professional career at Feyenoord, but never made it to the first team in Rotterdam. He was farmed out on loan to Antwerp and eventually joined his current team Mechelen in 2005.

He quickly developed into an important first team player at Mechelen and his impressive performances didn’t go unnoticed. Belgian giants Anderlecht were also closely monitoring his situation, but Asare preferred Utrecht to the Brussels side. Utrecht reportedly pay €1.3 million for the defender, who has signed a four-year deal at his new club. Nana Kwasi Asare’s joy at clinching a move to Dutch side Utrecht FC has been dampened by coach Milovan Rajevac’s decision to leave him out of the squad that will play Mali in a world cup qualifier.

The left back had a fine season in Belgium, earning a nomination for best African player there in the process before forcing his way into Rajevac’s squads for friendlies against Egypt in Cairo and Benin in a 2010 World Cup qualifier. But the Serbian says he has no plans for Asare in Ghana’s World Cup qualifier against Mali which could invariably also mean he will miss the other game against Sudan two weeks after the Mali game.

“He is a good player but Asare is an attacking left back and for this match, you need a different type of player,” Rajevac told Citi FM. “He is part of the future but not in my plans for Mali.”

Ironically, Rajevac could fall on back to base Asante Kotoko left back Harrison Afful or Samuel Inkoom, two players who have made their name in the game on the back of their attacking qualities from the full back positions rather than their defending.


My Ultimate Comment:

I am not astounded with regards to the calculated improvement of Nana Kwesi Asare.

A fine chap who has the ball obviously glued to his tiny legs and who paces down the left flank as though he is an embodied soul of Madrista legend Roberto Carlos. I am taken aback though by Coach Milovan’s comments. It sure does not help matters when such comments drop out of the mouth of our national gaffe.

On a much lighter side, did he use his interpreter during his chat with Citi? I was just wondering. Anyways, Nana Asare isn’t just one of the brightest spots we have in Ghana but worldwide. He was included in the list of 100 Promising Young Talents by the Italian tabloid ‘Cozza Italia’ not to make up for the numbers but because of his great soccer skills and aptitude. That tells you his maturity with the saint-like game.

What Milovan tells me here is that the Greeks are the dumbest when they laid down the adage ‘the best way to defend is to attack’ during the colonial era. Harrison Afful is having a hard time trying to settle into the Kotoko team after he came back from his parent club, Feyenoord where as Samuel Inkoom has been a poor shadow of himself ever since he made the move to FC Basel.

Milo is surely left with picking Nan, else, we are white washed down the left flank.