Pursuing a shining legacy: Building fresh set of Black Satellites (National Under-20)

Barely two months after their gold medal winning feat at the 2023 Africa Games hosted by Ghana, a team of Technical Handlers, led by gold medal winning Coach Desmond Offei, have commenced an intensive and wide ranging search for the next stock of footballing talent that will take up the mantle from their illustrious predecessors who have, over the last three years, consistently won laurels and lifted the flag of Ghana high. This first phase of the search for more talented footballers effectively started on May 1st, 2024, and will run all the way through till 16th June, 2024.

A generation of Ghana's Black Satellites won the 2021 WAFU Zone B Championship, and the U20 AFCON thus qualifying for the U20 World Cup. That World Cup tournament was cancelled by FIFA due to Covid-19. The next generation of Black Satellites won the gold medal at the 2023 Africa Games.

Whilst the nation continues to bask in the glorious feats of the Black Satellites, the Ghana Football Association, in its pursuit of consistent high levels of performance by the national teams, commissioned Coaches Desmond Ofei, Nii Odartey Lamptey, Salifu Fatawu and Isaac Amoako to scout for more talents that would augment the current crop of Under 20 players. The ongoing scouting activity has been necessitated by the fact that a number of the current squad are ready for promotion to the Black Meteors (National U23). In addition to this, the Technical team are looking to further strengthen the squad and deepen the pool of available talent.

The scouting team shall observe several matches in the Division One and Premier Leagues with the net being cast all over the country.

Additionally, three Mini-Tournaments involving selected players shall be organised in three zones, as follows:

Northern Zone: Upper East, Upper West, Northern, North East Middle Zone: Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Ashanti, Savanna, Oti Southern Zone: Greater Accra, Western, Western North, Central, Eastern, Volta.

By the end of this phase of scouting for the national Under 20 team, a number of top talents would have been selected for further assessment ahead of putting together Ghana's next generation of Black Satellites. With this approach, underpinned by identification of talents best suited to Ghana's football philosophy (DNA), the needed foundation for continuing success would have been laid.

GFA Communications