Afriyie Barnieh could become worse than Dominic Adiyiah – Charles Taylor

According to him, Barnieh could follow in the footsteps of Adiyiah, who faded away after starring at the U20 World Cup in 2009.

Barnieh remains one of Ghana’s most highly-rated young footballers at the moment after breaking out at Hearts of Oak.

The 22-year-old helped the Phobians to win the Ghana Premier League and back-to-back FA Cup titles before joining Swiss side FC Zurich.

For Ghana, he also captained the Black Satellites to win both the U20 WAFU Cup and the U20 AFCON and was part of the Black Stars squad at the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

Despite being the skipper of the Black Meteors at the ongoing U23 AFCON in Morocco, Barnieh’s position in the team isn’t certain.

The forward has struggled for game time at his club, which has affected his performances, and he didn’t impress in Ghana’s opening game against Congo Brazzaville.

Having had little impact in the first half, Barnieh was replaced by Emmanuel Yeboah, who went on to score twice and provide an assist as the Black Satellites won 3-2.

Reacting to Barnieh’s decline in form, Taylor said the player has lost focus and warned that he would fade into obscurity if he doesn’t regain focus.

“He has lost focus on the field. If he doesn’t receive proper psychological support, his performance could deteriorate even further,” Taylor told Angel FM, as quoted by 3Sports.

“You can simply compare his previous performances to his current state; he might even fare worse than Adiyiah.”

Barnieh is likely to start from the bench in Ghana’s second group game at the ongoing U23 AFCON against Morocco following Yeboah’s impressive performance off the bench.