‘No pressure, no passion’ – Stephen Appiah laments complacency in Black Stars

Former Ghana captain, Stephen Appiah has criticised the current generation of Black Stars players for lacking hunger and competition, insisting that complacency has crept into the national team setup.

Speaking in an interview shared by Max TV, the ex-Juventus midfielder said too many players in the current squad are guaranteed places regardless of their performance levels, a stark contrast to his playing days, when competition for positions was fierce.

“There is no competition now, so some of the players feel so cool that whether they play well or not, they will play. In our time, it wasn’t like that,” Appiah lamented.

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Appiah’s comments come in the wake of Ghana’s mixed fortunes over the past years.

The Black Stars recently sealed qualification to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but only months after enduring a woeful 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign, where they failed to win any of their six matches, losing three and drawing three, to finish bottom of their group.

That failure followed a string of poor showings at the last two AFCON tournaments, where Ghana suffered back-to-back group-stage exits in 2021 and 2023, marking one of the nation’s lowest points in modern football history.

Appiah, who captained the Black Stars to Ghana’s first-ever World Cup appearance in 2006, said the problem runs deeper than just tactics or coaching; it’s about mentality and meritocracy.

“In our time, there were certain players who looked like key players in the team. We were not key players. We had players like William Tierro and the rest, so we too had to make sure that we were not going to allow them to take our positions,” he added.

Watch the interview below:

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Meanwhile, watch the latest Sports Check interview with Alex Kotey, the GFA Referees Manager below: