Former Black Stars captain, Stephen Appiah has expressed his worry regarding the failure of Ghana’s youth national teams to qualify for major tournaments.
Speaking before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Sports, Appiah cited Black Starlets’ failure to qualify for tournaments.
The Starlets have not participated in the U-17 World Cup since their quarter-final exit in 2017.
They also failed to advance beyond the group stages of the African U-17 Championship, finishing fourth in the WAFU Zone B tournament held in June earlier this year.
“It is really embarrassing that Ghana today, we can’t qualify to play the Under-17 World Cup,” Appiah said.
“Major tournament we are not part of it and we have talents all around. Today if we said, let’s go to Kawukudi, even gutter to gutter, you’ll see four talents there. As they said, we have to set some people to go out there to search for talents,” he added.
Appiah emphasized the importance of establishing a robust scouting network that extends beyond Accra to uncover potential national team assets.
“We think that all the best players are from this side, no. When you go to BA [Brong Ahafo], the North, that’s where you see the real talent, so we have to try and spend more to get players who can represent the country in the future.”
Appiah was part of Ghana’s U-17 team that triumphed over Brazil 3-2 in the 1995 tournament in Ecuador, marking the nation’s second and last U-17 championship victory.
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