Ghana national football team

Ghana

Nickname(s)	The Black Stars
Association	Ghana Football Association
Confederation	CAF (Africa)
Sub-confederation	WAFU (West Africa)
Head coach	Goran Stevanović
Captain	John Mensah
Most caps	Richard Kingson (90)
Top scorer	Abedi Pele (33)
Home stadium	Ohene Djan Sports Stadium Baba Yara Stadium Tamale Stadium Sekondi Stadium
FIFA code	GHA
First colours Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	23
Highest	14 (February, April, May 2008)
Lowest	89 (June 2004)
First international
Gold Coast 1–0 Nigeria (Accra, Gold Coast; 28 May 1950)
Biggest win
Kenya 0–13 Ghana (Nairobi, Kenya; 12 December 1965)
Biggest defeat
Bulgaria 10–0 Ghana (Leon, Mexico; 2 October 1968)
World Cup
Appearances	2 (first in 2006)
Best result	Quarter-finals; 2010
Africa Cup of Nations
Appearances	18 (first in 1963)
Best result	Winners; 1963, 1965, 1978, 1982

The Ghana national football team, popularly known as the Black Stars, is the national association football team of Ghana and is controlled by the Ghana Football Association. Before gaining independence from Great Britain in 1957, the country played as the Gold Coast.

Although the team did not qualify for the senior FIFA World Cup until 2006, they had qualified for five straight Olympic Games Football Tournaments when the tournament was still a full senior national team competition. The team has won the Africa Cup of Nations four times (in 1963, 1965, 1978, and 1982), making Ghana the second most successful team in the contest's history, behind Egypt.

After going through 2005 unbeaten, Ghana won the FIFA most improved team of the year award and they reached the second round of the 2006 FIFA World Cup led by Serbian football coach, Ratomir Dujković.

At the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, they became the third African team in history to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.

History

The Ghana Amateur Football Association was founded in 1957, soon after the country's independence, and was affiliated to Confederation of African Football and FIFA the following year. Englishman George Ainsley was appointed coach of the national team.

In 1960 the Black Stars played Spanish giants Real Madrid, who were at the time Spanish, European and intercontinental champions, and drew 3–3.

Charles Kumi Gyamfi became coach in 1961, and Ghana won successive Africa Cup of Nations titles, in 1963 and 1965, and achieved their record win, 13–0 away to Kenya, shortly after the second of these. They also reached the final of the tournament in 1968 and 1970, losing 1–0 on each occasion, to DR Congo and Sudan respectively. Their domination of this tournament earned the country the nickname of "the Brazil of Africa" in the 1960s. The team had no success in FIFA World Cup qualification during this era, and failed to qualify for three successive African Cup of Nations in the 1970s, but qualified for the Olympic Games Football Tournaments, reaching the quarter finals in 1964 and withdrawing on political grounds in 1976 and but making little progress in continent-wide competitions until the appointment of Burkhard Ziese as coach in 1991. The 1992 African Cup of Nations, after three failures to reach the final tournament, saw Ghana finish second, beaten on penalties in the final by Côte d'Ivoire.

Disharmony among the squad, which eventually led to parliamentary and executive intervention to settle issues between two of the team, Abedi Pele and Anthony Yeboah, may have played some part in the failure of the team to build on the successes of the national underage teams. Ghana slipped to 89th place in the FIFA World Rankings, but a new generation of players who went to the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship final became the core of the team at the 2002 African Cup of Nations, and were undefeated for a year in 2005 and reached the finals of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the first time the team had reached the global stage of the tournament. Ghana started with a 2–0 defeat to eventual champions Italy, but wins over the Czech Republic (2–0) and USA (2–1) saw them through to the second round, where they were beaten 3–0 by Brazil.

The Black Stars went on to secure a 100 percent record in their qualification campaign, winning the group and becoming the first African team to qualify for 2010 FIFA World Cup. The World Cup Draw in Cape Town on 4 December 2009 saw the Ghanaian team being placed alongside Germany, Serbia and Australia in Group D. They were able to reach the last 16 where they played the USA, defeating them 2–1 in extra time to become the third African nation to reach the World Cup quarterfinals. They then lost on penalties to Uruguay in the quarterfinals, having missed a penalty in extra time after a certain goal was saved off the line by Luis Suárez's deliberately parried handball who was then shown a red card for his actions.

World Cup record

Ghana were the only African side to advance to Round 2 of 2006 FIFA World Cup (Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Angola, and Tunisia were all eliminated in group play), and the sixth nation in a row from Africa to progress beyond the group stages of the World Cup. Ghana was the youngest team in the FIFA World Cup 2006 with an average age of 23 yrs and 352 days.

Because of Ghana's performances in the tournament, there has been praise for their continuous efforts to push forward and their fearless attitude. Greek Coach Otto Rehhagel told FIFA.com, "the teams you used to regard as a little behind tactically, the Africans for example, have caught up. They're physically even better off than we are, as they have tremendous natural athleticism, and they've come on enormously in the areas which were non-existent before, discipline and tactics for example. Every team which faced Ghana or Cote d'Ivoire knew they'd been in a game." Of their 2006 performance, FIFA.com said, "Ghana are surely a side in ascendancy."

Of the 32 countries that participated in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Ghana was ranked 13th by FIFA.[1]

Ghana likewise played in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and qualified for the quarterfinals where they were eliminated in penalties by Uruguay controversially. Ghana was ranked 7th out of 32 in that tournament.

Ghana vs. Serbia in the 2010 FIFA World Cup group D match at Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria on 13 June 2010.

Ghana vs. Uruguay in the 2010 FIFA World Cup quarter-final match at Soccer City, Johannesburg on 2 July 2010.

FIFA World Cup record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1962	Did not qualify
1966	Withdrew
1970 to 1978	Did not qualify
1982	Withdrew
1986 to 2002	Did not qualify
2006	Round of 16	13th	4	2	0	2	4	6
2010	Quarter-Final	7th	5	2	2	1	5	4
2014	To Be Determined
2018	To Be Determined
2022
Total	2/13		9	4	2	3	9	10

African Cup of Nations record

After the 1963 and 1965 triumphs, Ghana hosted and won the 13th edition of the African Cup of Nations trophy for keeps in 1978, and four years later, won it again in Tripoli, Libya. The team have won the African Cup of Nations four times (in 1963, 1965, 1978, and 1982), making Ghana the second most successful team in the contest's history, together with Cameroon; Egypt has won the past three tournaments (2006, 2008, 2010) to give it a record seven titles.

The Ghana national team at the 2008 African Cup of Nations before the quarter-final match against Nigeria.

African Cup of Nations
Titles: 4 Appearances: 18
Year	Position		Year	Position		Year	Position
1957	Did not enter		1978	Champions		1998	Round 1
1959	Did not enter		1980	Round 1		2000	Quarter-finals
1962	Did not qualify		1982	Champions		2002	Quarter-finals
1963	Champions		1984	Round 1		2004	Did not qualify
1965	Champions		1986	Did not qualify		2006	Round 1
1968	Second Place		1988	Did not qualify		2008	Third Place
1970	Second Place		1990	Did not qualify		2010	Second Place
1972	Did not qualify		1992	Second Place*		2012	Fourth Place
1974	Did not qualify		1994	Quarter-finals		2013	TBD
1976	Did not qualify		1996	Fourth Place		2015	TBD

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Gold background colour indicates that the tournament was won.

***Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

• For 2012, see 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualification

Olympic record

• 1964: Quarter-finals
• 1968: Group Stage
• 1972: Group Stage
• 1976: Group Stage

Note: Football at the Summer Olympics has been an under-23 tournament since 1992.

Match results

This is the senior Ghanaian national team forthcoming International Friendly and 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification matches

Key

  Win   Draw   Loss

Ghana v Kaizer Chiefs

12 January 2012 International Friendly	Ghana	Cancelled	Kaizer Chiefs	Rustenburg, South Africa
15:00 UTC+2				Stadium: Royal Bafokeng Stadium

Ghana v South Africa

Ghana v Platinum Stars

18 January 2012 International Friendly	Ghana	2 – 0	Platinum Stars	Rustenburg, South Africa
15:00 UTC+2	Gyan 27' A. Ayew 32'	Report		Stadium: Royal Bafokeng Stadium

Ghana v Botswana

Ghana v Mali

28 January 2012 2012 Africa Cup of Nations Group D	Ghana	2 – 0	Mali	Franceville, Gabon
20:00 UTC+1	Gyan 63' A. Ayew 76'	Report		Stadium: Stade de Franceville Referee: Djamel Haimoudi (Algeria)

Ghana v Guinea

Ghana v Tunisia

Zambia v Ghana

Mali v Ghana

Ghana v Chile

29 February 2012 International Friendly	Ghana	vs.	Chile	Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S.
19:00 UTC−5				Stadium: PPL Park

Ghana v Lesotho

1 June 2012 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

Ghana

vs.

Lesotho

Zambia v Ghana

8 June 2012 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

Zambia

vs.

Ghana

---

For 2011 match results, see Ghana national football team 2011

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

On 30 July 2011, for 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification Preliminary Draw at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Ghana were placed in the 1st pot and drawn in Group D with Zambia, Sudan and Lesotho. Ghana will commence their qualifying campaign in early June 2012, with the finishing top team in Group D advancing to the final Third round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifications.

Group D

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Main article: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – CAF Second Round Template:2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – CAF Second Round Group D 1 June 2012 Ghana vs. Lesotho 8 June 2012 Zambia vs. Ghana 22 March 2013 Ghana vs. Sudan 7 June 2013 Sudan vs. Ghana 14 June 2013 Lesotho vs. Ghana 6 September 2013 Ghana vs. Zambia Team honours Africa Cup of Nations Winners (4): 1963, 1965, 1978, 1982 Runners-up (4): 1968, 1970, 1992, 2010 Third place: 2008 Fourth place (2): 1996, 2012 West African Nations Cup Winners (5): 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987 All-Africa Games Bronze medals: 1978 Football at the All-Africa Games has been an under-23 tournament since 1991 African Nations Championship Runners-up : 2009 Personnel Current technical staff Position Staff Head coach Goran Stevanović Assistant coach Akwasi Appiah Goalkeepers' coach Edward Ansah Defenders' coach Marcel Desailly Midfielders' coach Stephen Appiah Forwards' coach Tony Yeboah Fitness coach Alek Gusić Psychologist Dr. Yao Mfodwo Business manager Anthony Baffoe Athletic supervisor Sellas Tetteh Head scout Ibrahim Tanko Scout Oti Akenten Welfare Officer Opoku Afriyie Protocol Officer Alex Asante Spokesman Randy Abbey Kit Manager Sherif Bobo Musah Bioengineer Professor Dr. Andrews Ayim Team Doctor Dr. Percy Annan 2nd Team Doctor Dr. Allan Akaba Masseur Richard Hammond Physiotherapist Charles Botchway 2nd Physiotherapist Jonathan Quartey 3rd Physiotherapist Omono Asamoah 4th Physiotherapist Mariana Kovacevic Last updated: February 2012 Source: Ghana Football Association official website Squad Current squad Match Date: 29 February 2012 Opposition: Chile Caps and goals correct as of: 11 February 2012, including the match against Mali Note: The following 18 players were called for the friendly match against Chile in Chester, Pennsylvania, USA, on 29 February 2012.
Goalkeepers
Defenders
Midfielders
Forwards

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the Ghana squad within the last 12 months. Retired and Discarded Players are not listed.

#	Name	Date of Birth (Age)	Height (m)	Caps	Goals	Club	Last Call-Up
Goalkeepers
—	Ernest Sowah	(1988-03-31) 31 March 1988	1.80	0	0	Berekum Chelsea	v. Mali (11 February 2012)
—	Brimah Razak	(1987-06-22) 22 June 1987	1.91	0	0	CD Tenerife	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
Defenders
—	Yaw Frimpong	(1986-12-04) 4 December 1986	1.67	0	0	Asante Kotoko	v. Nigeria (11 October 2011)
—	Rashid Sumaila	(1992-12-18) 18 December 1992	1.96	0	0	Ebusua Dwarfs	v. Gabon (15 November 2011)
—	Isaac Vorsah	(1988-06-21) 21 June 1988	1.92	33	1	Hoffenheim	v. Mali (11 February 2012)
—	Samuel Inkoom	(1989-06-01) 1 June 1989	1.79	35	1	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	David Addy	(1990-02-21) 21 February 1990	1.80	6	0	Panetolikos (loan–FC Porto)	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Harrison Afful	(1986-06-24) 24 June 1986	1.70	20	0	Espérance	v. Chile (29 February 2012)INJ
—	Davidson Drobo-Ampem	(1988-03-26) 26 March 1988	1.89	0	0	Esbjerg fB (loan–FC St. Pauli)	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Godwin Antwi	(1988-06-07) 7 June 1988	1.85	0	0	Vejle Boldklub	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Yaw Amankwah	(1988-07-07) 7 July 1988	1.95	0	0	Sandefjord	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Jerry Vandam	(1988-12-08) 8 December 1988	1.86	0	0	Caen (loan–Lille OSC)	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Daniel Boateng	(1992-09-02) 2 September 1992	1.88	0	0	Swindon Town (loan–Arsenal)	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
Midfielders
—	Agyemang Opoku	(1989-06-07) 7 June 1989	1.74	10	0	Al-Sadd	v. South Korea (7 June 2011)
—	Mohammed Rabiu	(1989-12-31) 31 December 1989	1.88	0	0	Evian	v. Brazil (5 September 2011)
—	Prince Buaben	(1988-04-23) 23 April 1988	1.78	2	0	Watford	v. Nigeria (9 August 2011)
—	Manny Agyemang-Badu	(1990-12-02) 2 December 1990	1.69	31	4	Udinese	v. Mali (11 February 2012)
—	Mohammed Abu	(1991-11-14) 14 November 1991	1.83	4	0	Eintracht Frankfurt (loan–Manchester City FC)	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Bennard Yao Kumordzi	(1985-03-21) 21 March 1985	1.88	7	0	Dijon	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Haminu Draman	(1986-04-01) 1 April 1986	1.73	43	4	Arles-Avignon	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Quincy Owusu-Abeyie	(1986-04-15) 15 April 1986	1.80	18	2	Panathinaikos (loan–Al-Sadd)	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Albert Adomah	(1987-12-13) 13 December 1987	1.85	2	0	Bristol City	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Emmanuel Frimpong	(1992-01-10) 10 January 1992	1.78	0	0	Arsenal	v. Chile (29 February 2012)INJ
—	Wakaso Mubarak	(1990-07-25) 25 July 1990	1.71	0	0	Villarreal	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Torric Jebrin	(1991-01-14) 14 January 1991	1.60	0	0	Trabzonspor	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Jeffrey Sarpong	(1988-08-03) 3 August 1988	1.76	0	0	NAC Breda (loan–Real Sociedad)	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
Forwards
—	Emmanuel Clottey	(1987-08-30) 30 August 1987	1.78	3	0	Berekum Chelsea	v. South Korea (7 June 2011)
—	Nathaniel Asamoah	(1990-02-22) 22 February 1990	1.80	0	0	Red Star Belgrade	v. Eswatini (2 September 2011)
—	Dominic Adiyiah	(1989-11-29) 29 November 1989	1.72	16	2	Arsenal Kyiv (loan–AC Milan)	v. Gabon (15 November 2011)
—	Jeffrey Schlupp	(1992-12-23) 23 December 1992	1.81	1	0	Leicester City	v. Gabon (15 November 2011)
—	Akwasi Asante	(1992-09-06) 6 September 1992	1.83	0	0	Birmingham City	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Kwame Karikari	(1992-01-21) 21 January 1992	1.90	0	0	AIK	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Ransford Osei	(1990-12-05) 5 December 1990	1.72	1	0	Bloemfontein Celtic	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Sadick Adams	(1990-01-01) 1 January 1990	1.73	0	0	Al-Ansar (Medina)	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Christian Atsu	(1992-01-10) 10 January 1992	1.72	0	0	Rio Ave (loan–FC Porto)	v. Chile (29 February 2012)INJ
—	Boadu Maxwell Acosty	(1991-09-10) 10 September 1991	1.78	0	0	Fiorentina	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Richmond Boakye	(1993-01-28) 28 January 1993	1.86	0	0	Sassuolo (loan–Genoa CFC)	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD
—	Ishmael Yartey	(1990-01-11) 11 January 1990	1.71	0	0	Servette (loan–SL Benfica)	v. Chile (29 February 2012)WD

Notes

• ^INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury.
• ^WD Player withdrew from the squad due to personal reason.

Top goalscorers

#	Player	Goals	Caps	Career
1	Abedi Pele	33	67	1982–1998
2	Tony Yeboah	29	59	1985–1997
3	Asamoah Gyan	28	59	2003–2012

Managers

Head coaches

Date appointed	Manager name
2011–present	Goran Stevanović
2010–2011	Akwasi Appiah (interim)
2008–2010	Milovan Rajevac
2008	Sellas Tetteh (interim)
2006–2008	Claude Le Roy
2004–2006	Ratomir Dujković
2004	Sam Arday (interim)
2004	Mariano Barreto
2003	Ralf Zumdick
2003	Burkhard Ziese
2002	Emmanuel Akwasi Afranie
2002	Milan Živadinović
2001–2002	Fred Osam-Duodu
2001	Cecil Jones Attuquayefio

Date appointed	Manager name
2000	Fred Osam-Duodu
1999–2000	Giuseppe Dossena
1997–1998	Rinus Israël
1996–1997	Sam Arday
1996	Ismael Kurtz
1995	Petre Gavrilla
1994	E.J. Aggrey-Fynn
1993–1994	Jørgen E. Larsen
1993	Fred Osam-Duodu
1992–1993	Otto Pfister
1990–1992	Burkhard Ziese
1988–1989	Fred Osam-Duodu
1986–1987	Rudi Gutendorf

Date appointed	Manager name
1984	Herbert Addo
1984	Emmanuel Akwasi Afranie
1982–1983	C. K. Gyamfi^
1978–1981	Fred Osam-Duodu^
1977–1978	O. C. Sampaio
1974–1975	Karl Weigang
1973–1974	Nicolae Nicuşor Dumitru
1968–1970	Karl Heinz Marotzke
1967	Carlos Alberto Parreira
1963 – 1965	C. K. Gyamfi^
1963	József Ember
1959–1962	Adreas Sjolberg
1958–1959	George Ainsley

Notes

^{^} Won African Cup of Nations during tenure.

Competitive Statistics

FIFA World Cup Record

FIFA World Cup Record	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
World Cup Finals	9	4	2	3	9	10	−1
World Cup Quals (H)	30	20	8	2	57	17	+40
World Cup Quals (A)	29	7	8	14	31	38	−7
World Cup Total	68	31	18	19	97	65	+32

African Cup of Nations Record

Nations Cup Record	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Nations Cup Finals	72	40	14	18	97	61	+36
Nations Cup Quals (H)	31	22	6	3	69	23	+46
Nations Cup Quals (A)	31	11	8	12	42	31	+11
Nations Cup Total	134	73	28	33	208	115	+93

Nations Cup Record by team

Ghana versus	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Mali	2	1	0	1	2	2	0
Botswana	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1
Ivory Coast	8	5	1	2	17	11	+6
Tunisia	7	6	1	0	12	5	+7
DR Congo	5	3	0	2	8	5	+3
Nigeria	8	3	2	3	7	7	0
Senegal	3	2	1	0	4	2	+2
Congo	3	3	0	0	7	2	+5
Guinea	5	3	2	0	6	3	+3
Zambia	4	2	0	2	3	3	0
Algeria	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1
South Africa	3	0	1	2	0	4	−4
Egypt	3	1	1	1	2	2	0
Morocco	3	1	1	1	2	1	+1
Sudan	2	1	0	1	3	1	+2
Burkina Faso	2	2	0	0	5	1	+4
Cameroon	3	0	2	1	1	2	−1
Libya	2	0	2	0	3	3	0
Togo	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1
Ethiopia	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2
Uganda	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2
Malawi	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1
Mozambique	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2
Namibia	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1
Zimbabwe	1	0	0	1	1	2	−1
Total	72	40	14	18	97	61	+36

West African Nations Cup [SCSA Zone III] Record

Year	Venue	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1982	Benin	Final	Winner	5	3	2	0	14	8	+6
1983	Ivory Coast	Final	Winner	4	3	1	0	7	2	+5
1984	Burkina Faso	Final	Winner	5	2	3	0	9	5	+4
1986	Ghana	Final	Winner	6	5	1	0	12	2	+10
1987	Liberia	Final	Winner	5	5	0	0	14	2	+12
Total	5/5	5 Finals	5 Championships	25	18	7	0	56	19	+37

• The Tournament was not held in 1985.

Kits

Kit evolution

1990–1999

1950–1989 2000–present

Jersey gallery

• 1980s
  1980s
• 1980s Away
  1980s Away
• 1990s
  1990s
• 2006–2007
  2006–2007
• 2008–2010
  2008–2010
• 2008–2010 Away
  2008–2010 Away
• 2010–2011
  2010–2011
• 2010–2011 Away
  2010–2011 Away
• 2012–2013
  2012–2013
• 2012–2013 Away
  2012–2013 Away

See also

• Ghana national under-23 football team
• Ghana national under-20 football team
• Ghana national under-17 football team
• Ghana women's national football team

External links

• Ghana Football Association official site
• Looking back at Ghana's World Cup 2006 at View Ghana
• Ghana List of International Matches at RSSSF