Arsenal midfielders Emmanuel Frimpong and Conor Henderson have made decisions on their international future, with both turning their back on England, despite representing the Young Lions’ youth sides.
Ghana-born Frimpong had played for England at both Under 16 and Under 17 level, before revealing last year that he always intended to represent the country of his birth. The 19-year-old has since refused to answer questions on why he turned out for England, but reaffirmed his desire to play for Ghana this week.
The Ghanian Federation have been tracking Emmanuel’s progress for a number of years, leading to regular contact with Chelsea’s Michael Essien, whilst recovering from anterior cruciate ligament damage earlier in the season. Essien has been key in convincing Frimpong to switch to the Black Stars, something he wants, telling Citi FM this week; ‘I will play for Ghana.’
Elsewhere, Conor Henderson has also confirmed he will continue to build on his blossoming international career with the Republic of Ireland. Henderson is currently part of the Under 21 setup, but, like Frimpong, played for England’s Under 16’s.
Conor is eligible to play for Ireland through both parents, and has been part of their youth teams since Under 17 level.
He may have been injured, but you can learn more on Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong in his ESPN Profile, with stats and a biography. Don’t forget, with soccer spread, its not how you win, its how you cover.
Its a shame as Frimpong like Song will be off to ACON every 2 years and will have alot of travelling to do.
Ugh so we will need further cover for DM as will lose both our DM’s to African nations
Not very worried; if Jamie is correct, Frimpong is third-choice anyway. Sounds like Coquelin is ahead of him.
Whats happening with the Dallas cup Jamie when will we know the team which is going to Dallas?
Arsenal submitted and initial squad a month ago. I got a copy of it, but was told not to publish it, as it would be chopped and changed. There were some players who are now on loan there, so that makes sense.
As yet, Arsenal haven’t submitted an update and have until half way through next to do so. When they do, I’ll see if its possible for me to publish it.
Henderson in the bag!! In fairness, we need him more and playing for England has never helped any player.
I am not sure whether Henderson will make the grade at Arsenal or not, but I think he can make a contribution to Ireland for years to come. A great choice and good news Ireland or anyone with Irish blood (like myself)!
Absolutely agree with you Murt great to see an Irish player playin for us.
kids should respectfully turn down call ups from their national team until they are established in their club’s first team squad. mexico is killing vela’s career, and ghana probably won’t help frimpong’s that much.
whatever, coquelin will be the man, from what i hear.
After watching the England Vs Ghana match, I know who’s more exciting and who I’d rather play for (hint: Not england).
But this is a serious dent on his arsenal career. When it’s a choice between Le Coq and Frimpong, I’d rather the CM that’s not away every 2 years.
Ghana were the youngest team in the world cup and made the QF and very unlucky not to make the SF’s.With so many good youngsters, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the future. Frimpong the new Essien? hopefully
englan would have won the world cup in 8-12 years if they had managed to get frimpong and henderson to play with other arsenal talents like wilshere, lansbury, jet, gibbs, walcott etc. etc. if england goes all-arsenal over the next decade they will still be in with a big chance though. arsenal can do for england what barca has just done for spain.
hello there…
Gunner17 Haha yeah ok whatever
from wat im hearing, the ACN is gona be b2b next year and the year after. There wouldnt be a year gap next year, so we might miss our African players for longer than we want.
Some1 pls correct me if i’m wrong
I believe CAF have decided to move african nations cup to the summer rather than January, but I’m not sure how it’ll work cos African nations cup will clash with the World cup.
I’ll check the CAF website and update you’all!
Which is why we dont need 2 african defensive midfielders.
lol.
keep alex song and buy another defensive midfielder to keep cover.
JS any suprises in the dallas cup squad?
ANy under 16s in that squad?
my guess is wenger will choose one of song/frimpong and let the other leave as they are similar technically but frimpong is faster,more athletic and has more mobility.injury record could also be an issue so fingers closed.i think coquelin will stay coz hes different in style more like flamini and is european so its btn him and eastmond/lansbury.
Gutted about Frimpong but with injury prone song and now this hopefully we will land rodwell or parker or someone of that ilk to be 1st choice. I think song is far too casual to play dm fella needs a rocket up his jacksy sometimes. To be honest i would not be too gutted if we sold song denilson diaby fabregas and rosicky and got around 80m to spend on rodwell parker cahill and hazard.
thank god ur not manager
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J61-X1DRcNc
Jenkinson looks like a very promising player. Although not amazing he does seem like he has alot of potential kinda the same way Smalling had potential and is now fulfilling them. He’d be a good young back up that can eventaully challenge Bac for the rb slot, hopefully
The irish team snags up all the talent they can. McGeady, James McCarthy, Darren Gibson, Shane Duffy, etc. To be fair tho, Henderson is not of Englands level so he is not really turning his back on them. More like was not need so he is playing for Ireland.
I like Pongo Pongo, a good honest African boy, fair play to the lad, I wish him well.
Frimpong and henderson representing ghana and ireland respectivly is best for their career, you may want them to go for england but let come to the fact it will be difficult for them to break into the england team unlike the way they will break into ghana and ireland team, the problem is we see frimpong as a back up for song but both of them going to the nation cup every two years will do us more harm than good however we have enough defensive midfield to cover us before they come back in coquelin, lansbury and henderson who will be first team players in the defensive midfield together with the present once from next session which i know one or two of the present once will be sold in the summer while henderson may go on loan next season to gain first team experience.
From an English perspective it’s a shame Henderson & Frimpong have picked Ireland & Ghana, but if they feel more comfortable playing for the countries their parents hail from, then good luck to them, it’s England’s loss, but i wish them well.
Well Frimpong is not English anyway so that was always a non starter as for Henderson he probably knows he is way down the pecking order so playing or Ireland is probably his best option if he wants to have a career as an international football player.
About the Dallas Cup, Afobe won’t be available right? There’s no clause we added to take him along to play like with the Youth Cup?
The ACN is running in 2012 & 2013. So looks like we are going to lose our African players every january over the next 2 years
What does it matter who they play for…..al teams have to deal with players being away for periods…..united lost, Park, Anderson, Chelsea lost Drogba, Kalou, Liverpool didnt lose anyone cuz they are crap but if Frimpong does a job 90% of the season then thats good and if he is away for 2 months every 2 years, Van Persie has been missing 75% of the time thelast 4 seasons I dont here anyone commenting that we should get rid because he is injured all the time
Spot on Foxy 10
We have always had irish players ie Stapleton, David o Leary, Liam Brady etc
We seem to have one every 10 years and they always tend to be great great players.
I really like Henderson he’s got a great left foot, great vision and can score goals. I would like to see Henderson in that holding position could be like our xavi alonso or fernando redondo
And of course not forgetting Eddie McGoldrick, Graham Barrett and Steve Morrow LOL
Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKGGRtbVB-Q
Liam brady on conor henderson
Intresting
Errrm, i’m not being funny but where did all this Henderson hype come from all of a sudden? Ok, he was highly rated a few years ago but he hasn’t progressed as well as many (including Wenger) will have you believe. He reminds me of Chris Brunt to no end. Phenomenal left-foot – nothing else unfortunately! Don’t fool yourselves Gooners.
Frimpong has a future, as does Coquelin, Aneke and Lansbury. Everybody else is either a ‘maybe’ or a ‘no chance’. Henderson is currently a ‘slim’ maybe. That means that he could either come on leaps and bounds over the next year or two and do an ‘Ashley Cole’ by forcing his way into AW’s plans against all odds or he could do a ‘Mark Randall’ (who, ironically, he reminds me of as well in the sense that they possess very similar attributes and flaws) and regress ridiculously.
I like what I’ve seen of Henderson so far, glad he’s chosen to go for Ireland.. Let’s see how he develops before getting too excited.. Its an unfortunate trend that promising young Irish talent rarely fulfills their early potential..
TJ da goon
Conor henderson has always been talented lol.
He nearly when to chelsea at 16.
Hes just had alot of injuries so alot of people havent seen him play.
Hes coming back now and hes playing a few amount of games.
Hes better technically than frimpong and hes a match winner.
He will either score goals or create chances which is why i like him.
Him and henri lansbury are goal scorer and can create chances as well