Harry Maguire roasted by Ghanaian parliament in bizarre debate

A Ghanaian MP had parliament roaring with laughter after comparing the nation's vice president unfavourably with Harry Maguire.

Isaac Adongo accused Dr Mahamudu Bawumia of being an "economic Maguire" and scoring repeated own goals during the 2023 budget debate as his colleagues howled with laughter at the surprise footballing analogy.

Adongo said that Maguire was once "tackling everybody and throwing his body everywhere... he was seen as the best defender in the world."

But then Manchester United bought the player for £80m and he quickly "became the biggest threat at the centre of the Manchester United defence".

"[He was] tackling Manchester players and giving assists to opponents. Mr Speaker, when you see the opponents go to score, Maguire will score for them," Mr Adongo continued.

"Mr Speaker," he added, "You remember in this country we also have an economic Maguire. This economic Maguire, we're clapping saying this man is the best in managing foreign terms."

"The same economic Maguire was at Central University delivering lectures on how to restore the value of the Cedi [Ghana's currency]. Mr Speaker, why we gave this Maguire the opportunity to be at the centre of our defence, he became the rest of our own goals."

The bizarre football analogy was then supplemented by a series of economic statistics to hammer home the point before Adongo concluded that Ghana's "biggest issue" is that they have to "pay the appearance fee for this Maguire".

Maguire wasn't the only player brought into the debate, either.

In response to Adongo's speech, Alex Tetteh Djornobuah MP told members it would be better to "maintain Maguire" rather than bring back a player they now know to be "the worst striker in the whole world".

He is, of course, referring to Chelsea's decision to bring Romelu Lukaku back to Stamford Bridge at an exorbitant cost and using the transfer to try and persuade members to refrain from voting the former president back into power.

Given that Lukaku missed a number of clear chances as Belgium crashed out of the World Cup on Thursday, he might just have a point.