As part of efforts to boast the morals of the National teams in the country,West Ham United and Ghanaian International defender, who plays his football in the English Premiership last Friday, visited the National Under-17 team, the Black Starlets, at Tema.

The Starlets who played division one side All Stars of Tema, as part of their preparation towards the ongoing African Under-17 Qualify series, in which they defeated the All Stars by a lone goal which saw Kelvin Bossman cross resulted in an own goal. After the match, John Paintsil hosted the entire team at Southern Fried Chicken Restaurant in Tema. They drank, ate and enjoyed themselves.

John Paintsil also gave the team an undisclosed amount of money as their winning bonus, even though the match was a friendly match. In an interview, the West Ham United versatile defender advised the players to be disciplined,dedicated and take instruction from their coaches since without these principles; they would not achieve their aim on the field. He called on the Starlets not to see the Black Stars players at a far distance different from them since the junior players are the future Black Stars players and would need advice from them.

The Skipper of the Starlets, Owusu Benjamin, who spoke on behalf of the team, thanked John Paintsil for the visit and expressed surprise about his behaviuor. He promised the team?s commitment in making Ghana proud in the qualify series and in the U-17 Championship. The Starlet will play against their Guinean counterpart in the return leg match of the qualify series on Sunday 15th of this month in Conakry,Guinea. The first match, which was played at Sunyani, ended 3-1 in favour of the Starlets. Meanwhile, the Starlets will play their last friendly match with their Togolese counterparts.