Ghana and PAOK FC defender Baba Abdul Rahman has been missing from the Black Stars for some months now. First, he turned down the opportunity to play the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, instead opting to concentrate on his club career.
Post-AFCON, the Black Stars have not been able to have the full-back back in the squad. His latest omission raised eyebrows with many questioning the reason for his absence.
That is most notable due to his current form. The form Augsburg and Chelsea left-back has been one of Ghana’s most outstanding defenders in the last season. He was crucial as his Greek side clinched the Greece Super League. Baba Rahman contributed 6 goals and laid on 3 more for his teammates.
In total, he made 28 appearances for the Greek club after joining them from Chelsea last summer.
However, Otto Addo revealed that the reason for the defender’s absence was way beyond performance. He said the crowd abuse has been too much for him to bear, effectively forcing him to sit out on international duty.
“I have seen his performances. At the moment he is not ready to come back. What happened in Kumasi affected him and his family a lot,” Otto Addo stated.
According to Otto Addo, he was prepared to go to Greece to meet Baba Rahma to discuss his return but the player was honest and said that won’t change anything for now. It has, therefore, been decided to allow him time to heal from the damage the abuse did to him.
“We would have needed him very much. I had a long talk with him and I even wanted to fly there but he was sure he wouldn’t change his mind,” Otto Addo.
How Baba Rahman became supporters’ target for bullying
Baba Rahman since making his debut for the senior national team in 2024 has remained consistent with the national team, responding to every call-up. However, during the 2017 AFCON, Baba Rahman suffered a knee injury against Uganda that ended his participation in the tournament.
Then on loan at Shalke 04, Baba Rahman returned to Chelsea for treatment. After many years of battling for fitness and form amidst periodic loans to different clubs, the defender finally began to play good football while on loan at Reading in the English Championship.
Between 2017 and 2020, the defender missed 999 days and a total of 56 matches through injuries, all starting with the one picked up in Gabon during the AFCON.
In 2022, he told Standard Sports that he contemplated quitting football due to the knee injuries.
“At one point, I decided I had to quit football because of all the complications I had but they [Chelsea medical team] just gave me the confidence to keep going.
“I remember after the first ACL injury at the African Cup of Nations, I was 22 and now I am 28. I feel like it flashed by. Every operation is tough. I’ve not had the games that I dreamt of and it has gone too fast – and that’s very frustrating for me.”
Since his injury and struggle for form, whenever he is called into the national team, the merits have always been questioned. Many supporters often resort to social media to pour out their anger against the defender; singling him out for abuse more often than not.
in 2023, during Ghana’s final 2023 African Cup of Nations qualifiers at the Baba Yara Stadium, a large number of the fans subjected the defender to frequent boos. The hostile reception continued throughout his time on the pitch. Ghana eventually beat The Wild Beasts 2-1 to seal qualification.
That effectively sealed his decision to stay away from the national team for a while with Coach Otto Addo revealing that the incident affected the player and his family a lot.