Ghana's President Mahama Warns About Young Talent Drain in Football

Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama has warned that the steady drain of young talent from the local league is eroding the foundations of domestic football.

Speaking on September 8, 2026, at Jubilee House during a meeting with Nations FC, Medeama SC and Ampem Darkoa Ladies, Mahama drew a direct line between early player exports and a declining standard in the Ghanaian championship.

“We lose them as soon as they shine”

Mahama pointed to a familiar pattern. A youngster breaks through, strings together a few standout performances, and almost immediately attracts scouts. Before local fans can truly claim him, he is gone.

According to the president, clubs are selling players too quickly, and that cycle is “gradually weakening” the domestic game. The league, he argued, cannot grow when its best prospects leave at the first sign of promise.

Ghana, he stressed, is losing its young talent far too early. The result: a domestic championship that struggles to maintain quality, identity and continuity.

Mahama urged football stakeholders to find ways to keep emerging stars in the national league for longer spells, allowing them to develop properly at home before making the leap abroad.

National team as a stepping stone

The president did not call for shutting the door on foreign moves. Instead, he outlined a different route.

Mahama proposed that promising players be given opportunities with the national team earlier in their careers. That exposure, he believes, would give them crucial experience at international level while they are still rooted in the local game.

In his view, a player who first grows through the national league and then tests himself with the national team will reach a more mature stage of development. Only after that, he suggested, should they attract serious attention from international or even local scouts looking to move them on.

For Mahama, the question is not whether Ghanaian footballers should go abroad. It is when they should leave, and how strong the domestic game will be when they do.