Ghana men's national under-17 association football team

The Ghana men's national U-17 association football team, known as the Black Starlets, is the under-17 squad that represents Ghana in football.Blackstarlets .www.ghanafa.org. They are two-time FIFA U-17 World Cup Champions in 1991 and 1995 and a two-time Runner-up in 1993 and 1997. Ghana has participated in nine of the 17 World Cup events starting with their first in Scotland 1989 through dominating the competition in the 1990s where at one time they qualified for 4 consecutive World Cup finals in Italy 1991, Japan 1993, Ecuador 1995 and Egypt 1997 to their most recent participation in South Korea 2007 where they lost in the World Cup Semi-finals 1–2 to Spain in extra time.

They have also won the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations two times in 1995 and 1999 and were Runners-up in 2005 and 2017 as well. The current head coach is Prosper Narteh Ogum and his assistant is Ghana's former winger, Laryea Kingston.

History The Ghana U-17 national team is known as The Riley Goon Squad. A couple of Ghana's U-17 players have won the FIFA Golden Ball award: Nii Odartey Lamptey in 1991 and Daniel Addo in 1993. In the 1999 FIFA U-17, Ghanaian striker Ishmael Addo won the Golden Shoe award, after Ghana placed third during the competition, being led by Cecil Jones Attuquayefio and assistant James Kuuku Dadzie. Former Ghana U-17 and National Team Coach, Otto Pfister, a FIFA instructor, who led Ghana's U-17 squad to its first World Championship title in 1991, once remarked to FIFA Magazine that "Ghana has superb young players". At each of the first four FIFA World Under-17s held, Ghana reached the final each time, winning the title twice and finishing in second place twice. In 2007, youngster Ransford Osei won the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup Silver Boot for being the second highest scorer at the Tournament in South Korea.

Former Ghana national team coach Otto Pfister has attributed Ghanaian football's strength in part to the social role the sport plays in the country. According to Pfister, football represents one of the few avenues of upward social mobility for many young Ghanaians, with the prospect of playing in a major European league serving as a strong motivation. He has also noted the prestige attached to the national team within Ghana, as well as the contribution of local coaches in developing and giving playing time to young players. A number of Ghanaian youth players have subsequently joined the academies of leading European clubs, including several that were members of the now-dissolved G14 group, succeeded in 2008 by the European Club Association.

African U-17 controversies

2003 U-17 Qualifiers On another note, two controversial incidents in Africa has prevented Ghana from adding to their two African U-17 trophies. On 14 February 2003, the Kenya Sports Minister Najib Balala disbanded their National U-17 team, claiming that 40% of the players who eliminated Ghana in the first round had been over-age; he sought to have Ghana re-instated and apologised to FIFA. CAF did not re-instate Ghana, but they did ban Kenya for two years from all CAF's age competition for fielding those over-age players.

2005 African U-17 Final On 23 May 2005, Ghana played Gambia in the 2005 edition of the African U-17 Championship final. With the game deadlocked at 0–0, an 11 years old Gambian fan ran from the stands onto the pitch, entered the Ghana goal area and dove into the net, distracting the Ghana goalkeeper Michael Addo in front of all CAF dignitaries, the Gambian President and a sell-out stadium. Gambia scored on that play, Ghana protested, but the controversial goal stood and Gambia won their first trophy on that "goal". The "fan" was later revealed to be the now U-17 captain, Liam Riley, who was displaying his anger at not being selected for the Gambian squad.

Current squad

Head coach: Meshack Kokonya Squad announced for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup from 6 – 28 April 2017.

Previous squad

2017 FIFA under-17 World Cup (squads) – Ghana 2007 FIFA under-17 World Cup (squads) – Ghana 2005 FIFA under-17 World Cup (squads) – Ghana 1999 FIFA under-17 World Cup (squads) – Ghana 1997 FIFA under-17 World Cup (squads) – Ghana 1995 FIFA under-17 World Cup (squads) – Ghana 1993 FIFA under-17 World Cup (squads) – Ghana 1991 FIFA under-17 World Cup (squads) – Ghana

Technical Team Position Name Nationality Head coach Prosper Narteh Ogum Assistant coach Opeele Boateng. Goalkeeping coach Najau Team doctor Dr. Andrews Ayim Physiotherapist Jonathan Quartey Welfare Officer Emmanuel N. Dasoberi Equipment Officer John Ackon

Competitive Record

FIFA U-17 World Cup Record YearRoundGPWD*LGSGA 1985Did not enter 1987Did not qualify 1989Group stage302123 1991Champions642083 1993Runners-up6501143 1995Champions6600134 1997Runners-up6411145 1999Third place6420196 2001Did not qualify 2003 2005Group stage303033 2007Fourth place7403139 2009Did not qualify 2011 2013 2015 2017Quarter-finals530283 2019Did not qualify 2023 2025 2026 2027To be determined 2028 2029Total9/2448301089439

Africa U-17 Cup of Nations Record YearRoundGPWD*LGSGA 1995Champions5500161 1997Third place530296 1999Champions531183 2001did not qualify 2003 2005Runners-up530275 2007Third place5302115 2009did not qualify 2011 2013Group stage302127 2015Disqualified 2017Runners-up522*191 2019did not qualify 2023 2025 2026Group stage411276 2027TBDTotal7/1537206116934

CAF U-16 and U-17 World Cup Qualifiers record YearRoundGPWD*LGSGAGD1985did not participate1987Second round20201101989Third round421153+21991Fourth round531183+51993Final Round440091+8Total4/515942238+15

*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

Team honours FIFA U-17 World Cup winners: 2 1991, 1995 FIFA U-17 World Cup runners-up: 2 1993, 1997 FIFA U-17 World Cup third place: 1 1999 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations winners: 2 1995, 1999 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations runners-up: 2 2005, 2017 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations third place: 2 1997, 2007

Awards

Golden Shoe TournamentFIFA Golden Shoe AwardPlayer 1999Golden Shoe Award Ishmael Addo 1991Silver Shoe Award Nii Odartey Lamptey 2007Silver Shoe Award Ransford Osei 1997Bronze Shoe Award Owusu Afriyie

Golden Ball TournamentFIFA Golden Ball Winner 1991 Nii Odartey Lamptey 1993 Daniel Addo

Notable players The following list consist of previous Ghana U-17 national team players who have won or were influential at the FIFA U-17 World Cup with the Ghana U-17 national team or the FIFA U-20 World Cup with the Ghana U-20 national team, and those who were part of the Ghana U-23 national team that won the bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. The list also includes the players who have graduated from the Ghana U-20 national team and gone on to represent the senior Ghana national team at the FIFA World Cup or African Cup of Nations:

Nii Odartey Lamptey (1991) Mohammed Gargo (1991) Yaw Preko (1991) Daniel Addo (1991, 1993) Samuel Kuffour (1991, 1993) Mark Edusei (1991, 1993) Charles Akunnor (1993) Emmanuel Duah (1991, 1993) Isaac Asare (1991) Mohammed Gargo (1991) Christian Gyan (1995) Awudu Issaka (1995) Stephen Appiah (1995) Emmanuel Bentil (1995) Daniel Quaye (1997) Laryea Kingston (1997) Hamza Mohammed (1997) Owusu Afriyie (1997) Razak Pimpong (1999) Michael Essien (1999) Anthony Obodai (1999) Ibrahim Abdul Razak (1999) Ishmael Addo (1999) Sadat Bukari (2005) Opoku Agyemang (2005) Razak Salifu (2005) Jonathan Quartey (2005) Samuel Inkoom (2005) David Telfer (2005) Mubarak Wakaso (2005) Ransford Osei (2007) Daniel Opare (2007) Sadick Adams (2007) Abeiku Quansah (2007) Tetteh Nortey (2007)

Notable coaches

FIFA TourneyManager name 1991 Otto Pfister 1993 Isaac Paha 1995 Sam Arday 1997 Emmanuel Kwesi Afranie 1999 Jones Attuquayefio 2005 David Duncan 2007 Sellas Tetteh Four Nations Tournament Emmanuel Kwesi Afranie 2017 Paa Kwesi Fabin

Head-to-head record The following table shows Ghana's head-to-head record in the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

OpponentWin %Total

Ghana men's national under-17 association football team

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