Former Ghana international Laryea Kingston has denied claims he reacted physically after being dropped from the 2010 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup squad, calling the widely circulated reports entirely false.
Speaking to 3Sports, Kingston described the exclusion as one of the most painful moments of his playing career. He revealed that he had already retired for the night during Ghana’s pre tournament camp when teammate Quincy Owusu-Abeyie woke him close to midnight, informing him that the team manager wanted to see him immediately.
Kingston was then led into a conference room where the full technical staff and senior Ghana Football Association (GFA) officials were already seated. It was there the decision was formally communicated to him.
“The claims that I became physical are completely false,” Kingston said, acknowledging he was visibly emotional and spoke with force during the meeting but firmly rejecting any suggestion of violence.
He also revealed that then GFA president Kwesi Nyantakyi attempted to console him by pointing to future opportunities with the national team. Kingston said he pushed back on that reasoning, explaining that he had already planned to step away from international football after the tournament to focus on club duties and create space for younger players.
The wound, by his own admission, has not fully healed. Some former teammates continue to tease him about the incident to this day, though Kingston remains consistent in his position that the manner of his exclusion was unfair.
Ghana went on to reach the quarter-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the Black Stars’ finest performance in the competition’s history.
