The Communications Director for the Ghana Football Association Henry Asante Twum has emphasized the strategic significance of the Black Starlets participating in the 4-Nations tournament in Russia.
According to Twum, exposing the Ghanaian U-17 team, the Starlets, to such high-level competition is crucial for their development.
The Starlets lost to Russia and despite the loss, they have upcoming matches against Kazakhstan and Serbia in the coming days.
Henry Asante Twum believes that these opportunities will enhance the team’s competitive edge before they return to Ghana.
He highlighted that this exposure forms part of their preparations for the WAFU ZONE B U17 Cup of Nations and ultimately, their aspiration to qualify for the U-17 AFCON, a feat Ghana has narrowly missed out on in the past two editions.
Henry Asante Twum shared these insights during an interview with FMIG host Nathan Quao.
For this team, majority of them come from the KGL under-17 with championship we organised.We did two club competitions, later we organised the regional championship in Kumasi, we had coaches present to select some players, some of the players have already played the Premier League, some from Legon City, some from Accra Lions, some from Great Olympics, and so I think the exposure, you know, they have began to gather it in bits.As we host the tournament, our ambition is that, we host and win, then qualify for AFCON, because like you rightly said, we have not qualified since 2017 at the under 17.Under Paa Kwesi, we finish second, Mali beat us for the final, wey we go the World Cup, where we exit, I think the second round, so we won’t make am go Africa, we host one for Cape Coast, that one we lose to Burkina for the semi -final, so we know if we make Africa.This time round, we won’t go a step further, so say we go qualify for Africa.