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Baba Rahman was one of those older players who was expected to be loaned out this summer, but for one reason or another, he ended up staying with Chelsea … Reserves (or the U23 Development Squad, as we call it these days).
The 26-year-old left back was battling injuries this past season, limiting not only his playing time but also his options in the transfer window. Middlesbrough’s likes in the Championship were linked towards the end, but nothing materialized. And so Baba stayed with the team, and has trained and played with the Reserves at PL2, where Chelsea are truly the best in the league at the moment with 4 wins out of 6.
Baba has only appeared in one of those games, last weekend’s 3-1 loss to Liverpool U23, but he has played in a few friendlies and apparently played well enough that his national team not only took notice, He also called him up, his first since July 2019, before the last of his knee injuries occurred.
It’s a rare occurrence to get a call-up from the senior team from the reserve team, but Ghana’s head coach CK Akonnor is confident that this is the right decision for everyone involved:
“Baba Rahman was once a regular player here; due to injury he was taken out. Now he’s back, he’s in good shape, he’s playing very well with his team. Unfortunately, he has not had the opportunity to play in the first team.
“But he has had a couple of friendlies since August, September and even recently on October 24, which he played against Liverpool’s second team. And these games, he has played 90 minutes, some are 90 minutes, many 90 minutes and of course 70 minutes.
“So we’ve taken a lot of consideration, looking at the fact that we have a bit of weakness within that area, the full backs, so I thought it was necessary to bring him in to compete with Gideon on that side.
-CK Akonnor; source: Ghana FA
Ghana has a pair of African Cup of Nations qualifiers to play in the next international break, both against Sudan.
Good luck, Baba & Co!
