Inside story: It’s over for Kevin, Muntari
Black Stars midfielder, Sulley Muntari and his bosom friend Kevin-Prince Boateng appear to have come to the end of their international careers as long as James Coach Kwasi Appiah remains in charge of the senior national team.
Visibly overwhelmed by the nasty incidents that rocked the Stars in the days leading to their last Group G game against Portugal yesterday, Appiah’s posturing gave an indication that the two would not be part of his plans again.
He told the media in a post match-interview that his focus would be on the youth. It was a posture that sent a strong message that Appiah would not have the patience to tolerate the likes of Muntari and Boateng, who were both sacked from the Stars camp and suspended indefinitely undermining discipline in camp barely hours before Ghana’s clash with Portugal.
An insider told the Graphic Sports that coach Appiah felt betrayed by the midfielder who after bending over to welcome them back into the team, having earlier been placed in the cooler for disciplinary reasons. For Boateng, who turned his back on the team since 2011 and only resurfaced when Ghana had almost secured qualification to Brazil, his petulance shown towards Appiah was the last straw.
Yesterday, a member of the GFA Executive Committee and Black Stars Management Committee, Moses Armah, was forced to relocate from the Stars camp in Brasilia ahead of the game after tasting the savagery of Sulley Muntari at the team's camp in Brasilia last Tuesday. The AC Milan star, in a brazen display of display of disrespect, engaged Armah in a brutal physical battle for daring to demand decorum at a meeting with the players.
Armah, aka Mospacka, was nowhere to be found when the Graphic Sports visited the team's camp last Wednesday night.
An inside source revealed to this reporter that Mr Armah had checked into an unknown hotel in the city following the nasty incident which saw Muntari allegedly assaulting him physically.
Muntari was said to have damaged a lot of things in the hotel and was going to be fined as a result, but that decision had to wait till they were paid their monies to avoid any confusion.
The source said Muntari allegedly asked Mr Armah to shut up in the heat of exchanges during the meeting between senior members of the team and management officials, leading to the alleged physical attack and damage to his brand new laptop and three mobile phones belonging to Mr Armah.
Sequel to that was a technical meeting after dinner last Wednesday during which Coach Kwasi Appiah recommended to the management committee that 'partners in crime' Muntari and Boateng, who had been troublesome right from the beginning of the brazil 2014 World Cup, be suspended indefinitely.
As Coach Appiah had earlier confirmed in last Wednesday's press conference, the last straw which broke the camel's back was when Boateng engaged the Stars coach in an exchange of words during last Monday's training session.
The FA officially announced the indefinite suspension of Muntari and Boateng from the Black Stars yesterday morning and also withdrew their accreditation from the competition.