Rebuilding Black Starlets: Fallen football talent factory seek return to glory

In a FIFA Magazine in 1999, German coach Otto Pfister waxed lyrical about Ghana’s talent factory, and he had a good reason to. The Black Starlets had won two U-17 World Cup trophies, two U-17 AFCON trophies and was the perfect ground for Ghana’s best young footballers to develop.

Stephen Appiah, Samuel Osei Kuffour, and Sulley Muntari among others featured for the Starlets and gradually progressed to the senior level.

After some ups and downs in the 2000s, the Starlets won silver in the 2017 AFCON and made the final eight in the world cup. Since then, the team’s performances have been worrying.

“In junior high school circles, every journalist who wrote about football knew who Sulley Muntari was. If I ask you who the best U15 player in Ghana is, you will struggle to mention a name. It’s not because we don’t have one. There certainly must be a player who is the most dominant in that age group but because our scouting has not improved and our monitoring of those players have not improved over the years, we are no longer able to have those options available,” seasoned journalist Godfred Akoto Boafo told 3Sports.

27 years after winning silver with the Starlets, Laryea Kingston is now their head coach, tasked with leading the side back to the top, and he feels up for the challenge.

“I have what it takes,” Laryea Kingston told 3Sports.

“I’ve been in an environment where I’ve developed elite players that are playing in top level so I want someone to say in the future that a player in Real Madrid or Barcelona were in the national U17 team in 2025 and that one will give me joy,” he added.

Ghana will host the U-17 WAFU Zone B Championship beginning on May 15. It will be an opportunity for the starlets to make a return to the AFCON once again. The new generation is eager to make a mark.

“There’s a saying that full preparations ensure victory so there’s no pressure. We’re going to make Ghanaians proud,” current captain of the side, Benjamin Tsivanyo stated.

• The journey back to the top will be a tough one. Can they make that journey? Only time will tell.

The post Rebuilding Black Starlets: Fallen football talent factory seek return to glory first appeared on 3News.

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