Columbus Crew captain, Jonathan Mensah, believes his Black Stars place was frozen due to the misconception of playing in the Major League Soccer [MLS].

Mensah has been out of the Ghana national team after the 2019 African Cup of Nations [Afcon] where the Black Stars exited at the group phase of the tournament.

Since moving to the MLS in 2017 however, the Columbus Crew captain has been largely overlooked for national team duties despite playing well over 100 games for the Crew.

The former Ashantigold man believes the misconception about the MLS is what has affected his national team appearances.

“Looking back at my career in France, one of the top leagues in the world, I was in a tough situation at that time with a couple of injuries,” Mensah told Citi TV.

“I played just about 50 games in my 4 or 5 years in France. But I still played lots of games with the national team, because wherever there was a call up I was always fit,” he said.

“I’ve played over 100 games during my time in the MLS and I haven’t received too many call ups. I really don’t know where talk of the league being weak is coming from. I don’t believe that narrative,” he added.

The experienced centre back played over 50 games for the Black Stars during an injury-laden spell when he was playing in France.

Mensah became the first African in MLS history to captain his side to the championship when he led Columbus Crew to the 2020 MLS championship.

From Sammy Heywood Okine