Azam FC defender Yakubu Mohammed shares thoughts on Black Stars debut call up
Azam FC defender Yakubu Mohammed has shared thoughts on his maiden call up to the Black Stars as Ghana face Mali next month.
CK Akonnor named a 23-man squad ahead of Black Stars’ friendly clash with Mali in Turkey next month. And Yakubu was one of the seven new faces that were included in Akonnor’s list as Ghana to resume 2021 AFCON qualifiers with a tie against Sudan expected to stage November.
Ghana defender Yakubu Mohammed closely marks his opponent in Azam’s Premier League clash with Simba SC.
The 24-year old said he is happy and ecstatic to receive his first time call up to Black Stars when he posted on his twitter handle.
The centre-back was a household name for Aduana Stars before he left the Ghana Premier League side for Azam in 2016.
He has become a regular member for the Tanzanian side ever since making his Azam debut. In 2018, when Azam lifted the Kagame Inter Club Cup, Yakubu was one of the main men in defense seeing to it that his side conceded few goals in the domestic competition.
Since that year, the Ghanaian International has attracted several offers from the African continent and Europe. Simba Sporting Club nearly opened a bid to sign the defender in their 2019-2020 CAF Champions League campaign but he snubbed Simba to extend his stay at Dar es Salaam.
Having capped for the Black satellites (Ghana’s U20 Men national team), Yakubu makes yet another milestone in his International football career, and that comes on the high recognition scale where he is valued as replacement for Southampton man Salisu Mohamed.
Salisu could have earned a call up from CK Akonnor- who named players for the Black Stars second time as coach for the senior national team taking over from Kwesi Appiah in February 2020.
Salisu Mohammed in post match conference after scoring debut goal for Real Valladolid in Spanish Laliga.
However, the Ghanaian is battling with his fitness, seeing him left out in Southampton Premier League starting eleven since completing his £10.9million summer move from Real Valladolid to the Saints.
There is still hope for Salisu at Southampton when manager Ralph Hasenhuttle believes new Ghanaian acquisition Mohammed Salisu will need a bit more time to play his way into the club’s starting set-up.
“It may take a few more weeks, maybe [to break into the starting set-up]. After the next international break [in October], I hope to have him in the first eleven. He has good drive and is a very ambitious guy,” Hasenhuttl told Hampshire Live.
“He is working hard on his fitness at the moment after a long break from injury and there are a few issues we must work on but you can see his physicality.
“The potential he has is amazing and he wants to learn quickly. He is exactly the type of player that we need to have here.
“We have very clear and strict limits on any transfer we make. We have to have a player that really likes to come to us for money we can spend.
“If we find such a player then I am sure he will enjoy it and develop very quickly when he is with us.
“He will not be a short-term project, he will be more of a long-term project. Therefore I think he was a fantastic transfer.”
Akonnor gave same fitness reasons to Salisu’s omission from his call up on Friday. He said, “He (Salisu) is not in the team because I heard his coach spoke about him in terms of fitness level”
“They are looking at October after the national games, before he will be back. Based on that, I want to give him a chance to rest and get fit and start a game in Southampton and then we will look forward to get him on board.
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