The national teams in Ghana are ordinarily funded by the government and the Ghana Football Association but there have been extreme instances where footballers have had to step in to fund the activities of national teams.
Some of the reasons that lead to players taking up costs include delays in the release of budgets, luring players to honour call-ups, and doing it willingly to inspire other players.
Coincidentally the three players who have found themselves in such situations have all gone ahead to be captain of the Black Stars.
Here are three Ghanaian footballers who used personal money to fund national team activities
Stephen Appiah
Stephen Appiah, in an interview with Sompa FM, revealed that he once paid airfares and winning bonuses to players because they found the Black Stars unexciting.
“There was a time everybody(players) had no interest in playing for Black Stars. There was a time I had to pay for players’ plane tickets to Ghana and there was a time I paid winning bonuses,” he added.
Asamoah Gyan
Asamoah Gyan gave Black Queens $10,000 in 2015 to inspire them ahead of their All Games in Congo.
“Players of Ghana’s female national team, the Black Queens were left in tears after captain Asamoah Gyan adviced them about their careers before donating $10,000 to boost their participation at the upcoming All African Games,” GFA confirmed in a statement.
Dede Ayew
In 2016, Andre Ayew stepped in and offered to pay for plane tickets for Black Stars players who were unable to settle the cost after the Ministry of Youth and Sports refused to finance the cost of business class tickets for 21 foreign-based.
“The truth is that the players themselves in a massive show of patriotism have decided that they want to pay for their own tickets to come for the match,” Then Deputy General Secretary of the GFA, Ibrahim Saanie Daara said as quoted by ghraphic.com.
“However, there are some players in the squad who are unable to afford the tickets and for that Andre Ayew has decided that he will pay for them to turn up for the game.
Andre Ayew was injured and was not part of the squad for the final round of the 2017 Africa Cup qualifiers.