There are only four months left until the World Cup kicks off in Qatar. Each of the qualified nations is preparing their teams to fight hard. Now Ghana’s national team has added five new players who are eligible to play in Qatar.
Brighton defender Tariq Lamptey, who played for England Under-21s, Hamburger SV duo Stephen Ambrosius and Ransford-Yeboah Konigsdorffer. Both have represented Germany Under-21s. Athletic Bilbao star Inaki Williams is also set to play the World Cup for Ghana. Williams played a friendly match for Spain, where he was born six years ago. The fifth player is Patric Pfeiffer, a forward for German club Darmstadt.
The Ghana Soccer Federation announced that the five have switched nationalities to represent the African country. “This follows comprehensive interactions between the management, the players and their parents over the past few months,” the Ghana soccer body said in a statement. FIFA eligibility rules allow countries to recruit players from the country’s global diaspora under certain circumstances.
Players are allowed to switch allegiance to a new national team if they have never played a competitive game for the first country they are eligible to represent. Ghana qualified for their fourth World Cup by defeating Nigeria in a two-leg playoff in March. Ghana was drawn in a group with Portugal, South Korea and Uruguay. This year’s group match will be a replay of the much-controversial match against Uruguay.
