Though it seems obvious that Emmanuel Clottey, Daniel Nii Adjei and Emmanuel Baffour were the finest players in the just ended Glo Premier League and so it is worthy that they were shortlisted by the PLB for the much coveted MVP Award, views expressed in other quarters indicate that other players deserved to be shortlisted rather than these three.
The CEO of New Edubiase, William Asare Mensah doesn’t seem too happy with the shortlist and claims his side’s enterprising midfielder, Asiedu Atobra, deserves to be amongst the three short listed players.
In his opinion, the PLB erred in leaving the player out when he happens to be the player who had most MVP awards after thirty round of league games.
Indeed Asiedu Atobra played in twenty nine of the thirty games that Edubiase were engaged in and in the process received eleven MVP awards scoring six goals in the course of the league.
Aside receiving positive reviews from lot of the followers of the game, he is being chased by some big clubs in the country and without a doubt it will be a surprise if he continues to ply his trade with the Edubiase side in two years to come.
The obviously peeved CEO speaking to the Happy FM Sports team wondered why the PLB refused to shortlist the player and asked if that was done because New Edubiase is a ‘small club’.
Emmanuel Baffour who scored 21 goals in the league and pursues his career with the same club was short listed for the same award and so it might seem insincere for such an argument to be raised but according to Mr. Asare , “it is not wrong to shortlist two players from the same club” since it has been witnessed in other leagues.
He lamented the refusal of the FA to give 17 year old Atobrah a call up into the National Under 20 team saying “If he played for Kotoko or Hearts, he would have received a call up to the team”.
He therefore called on the PLB boss, Welbeck Abrah Appiah to explain circumstances surrounding the elimination of the enterprising Atobra from the shortlist.
In a swift move to rebuff the claims by the CEO, the PLB boss, Welbeck Abra Appiah explained circumstances that led to the nomination of the three players.
The PLB apparently wrote to all sixteen clubs before the start of the football season and asked for submission of names for the various awards at the end of the season.
Based on these submitted names, the PLB made the nominations for the various awards. About thirteen clubs according to him had submitted the names for the awards as at the time he was speaking to Happy Sports.
‘We didn’t make the submissions based on our convictions but on the nominations that were submitted” He said.
“ We couldn’t have forced a player into the nomination list because we had to use the criteria given”. He concluded.
Benjamin Agyei-Boateng/happyghana.com
