Ghana’s Black Starlets will be hoping for a blistering U-17 World campaign when they face the finest youthful sides in India come October, as they relish to relive the glorious moments of the early 1990’s.

Ghana conquered the World and exhibited flawless and dazzling football skills to direct the global media lenses towards Ghana during the 1990’s.

Ghana have been paired in Group A with host India, Columbia and USA in what promising to be a very interesting group that accompanies a lot of history among these sides.

The Black Starlets face a daunting task when they start their campaign against CONCACAF based Columbia who placed third Confederation and will face the mighty USA who also placed second in the same Confederation with Colombia. The twinkle twinkle little stars of Ghana face India by virtue of being the host nation in the last group game.

Experience on the World stage

Ghana’s first World triumph came at the U-17 level back in 1991 when the Black Starlets defeated Spain by a goal to nil to win the World Cup in Italy.

The 1991 squad was richly endowed with pure talent accompanied by team spirit led by an highly experienced coach Otto Pfister who established a trademark of enterprising football to help lift the trophy.



Noticeable players at this Championship included Kofi Mbeah, Mohammed Gargo, sweeper Isaac Asare, and ace marksman Nii Odartey Lamptey who was tipped by many to emerge as top footballing star. Their exploits in Italy took Ghana to the next level in World football as they illuminated Ghana across the the region.

In 1995, Ghana won their second title at the U-17 level when they defeated Brazil 3-2 at the finals in Ecuador.



Once again Ghana reinstated their superiority in World football at youth level with the likes of Awudu Issaka, Godwin Attram, Stephen Appiah, Christian Gyan just to mention taking Ghana to the next level of World Football.

The Experienced Gaffer

The current Black Stars squad have an experienced coach in Samuel Paa Kwesi Fabin considering his stature as one of the greatest coach Ghana has ever produced.

The 58-year-old has coached lots of budding stars who made name for themselves on the World Stage and continues to produce lots of talents at Ghana’s youthful side considering his long term spell as coach of the Starlets.

Fabin’s experienced at club level is very rich having coached the two most glamorous clubs in Ghana, Hearts and Kotoko as well as the Heart of Lions and Inter Allies.

Fabin has earlier envisaged his dream of winning the World Cup for Ghana the third time with a Ghana’s brand of football thus mixing the right blend of individual talent when the tournament takes center stage in October.

The Budding Stars



The current crop of Black Starlets look very promising as many football enthusiasts have compared them to the ever conquering squad of 1991 and 1995.

Their blistering start to the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations placed them in the lime light as a team to watch out for in the future. Despite their downward surge of performance in the tournament in Gabon, their individual talent is absolutely not shrouded in doubt.

Top European clubs have poached numerous of these players for their signatures, but these talents would set sight on bringing Ghana its third World title at the U-17 level after failing to break the 18 year trophy-less jinx on the Africa continent when Mali defeated them in Gabon to defend the trophy.

Hopefully when the contemporary Indian music sound loud in Mumbai come October, the Black Stars will dance to the music and showcase it’s rich brand of football to the World.