John Paintsil: Mohammed Kudus deserves the honours
A Board Member of the Ghana Football Awards, John Paintsil, believes the public could not have made a better choice for the ultimate award for the Footballer of the Year than Mohammed Kudus.
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At the football gong organised last Sunday, the 23-year-old was decorated with the ultimate award as the 2023 Footballer of the Year after Ajax midfielder beat off competition from KRC Genk winger, Joseph Paintsil, and RC Lens star, Abdul Samed Salis.
Sharing his views on the public’s decision with Graphic Sports, the former West Ham fullback said the public made the right decision for voting for Kudus even though all his two competitors also deserved the award.
He said the achievement of the Ajax star both at the club and national level towered above every player and deserved recognition.
“I believe Kudus did well during the World Cup and also with his club, Ajax. So, for me, all the three players that contested deserve it. The public votes also count so it’s not a bad choice. and I will say he deserves it,” he said.
He stated that after five years of organising the awards, they had learnt some useful lessons that were shaping the award and believed the coming years would see even more competitive awards.
He said before a player was nominated to be voted for, he must have achieved a lot under the year under review and added that as board members, they followed each player and what they had been able to achieve before putting them out to be voted for.
“We follow every player’s profile, the number of games you play, your impact, your contribution to the team and that give a player the opportunity to stand for the award.
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“We also look at the competition that the player is participating in because you can’t say somebody playing in Israel and played 10 matches and somebody playing in English Premier League (EPL) who played 20 matches and you think because the one playing in Israel scored 10 goals, he is better than the one in the EPL.
“For instance, if you play in England, your chances of getting playing time is difficult so you look at all those things and see the number of games, performance, goal scoring, the minutes he played and those are accessed to see who is doing well,” he said.