Sellas Tetteh knows a thing or two about nurturing young Ghanaian talent and he has high hopes several of his players at the Under 20 World Cup in New Zealand will push on for the 2018 and 2022 senior tournaments.
Six of his side that became the first African team to win the U20 World Cup in Egypt in 2009 went on to make the senior squad who came within a whisker of making the semi-finals of the 2010 tournament in South Africa.
“These players, you can not say you can promote them en bloc, but there could be one or two or three we could promote cautiously,” Tetteh said after his side produced an impressive 3-2 win over pre-tournament favourites Argentina in Wellington.
“In 2009, when we won the World Cup, nine of the players were promoted to the senior national team and six went to the 2010 World Cup.
“We are hoping that a few of our boys will be able to do that too.”
In 2010, the Black Stars were denied becoming the first African side to make the last four at the World Cup finals when Asamoah Gyan missed a 120th-minute penalty after Uruguay’s Luis Suarez had deliberately handled the ball on the goal line.
Uruguay went on to win the quarter-final in Johannesburg on penalties after the match ended locked at 1-1.
Their U20 side, however, have a strong pedigree at the age-grade levels, making at least the quarter-finals in all six of their previous U20 tournaments, finishing runners-up in 1993 and 2001 and third in Turkey in 2013.
“Soccer is the game that every person loves,” Tetteh added. “Our youth development is one of the biggest projects we follow assiduously.
“We try to put the best structures in place in our youth policy and it is paying dividends.
“The production of players from this U20 team in four years time you won’t be surprised to be seeing them in the senior team.”
The 58-year-old Tetteh is in his third U20 World Cup campaign in New Zealand and has already set the team a goal of reaching the semi-finals as a “minimum” target.
After their victory over Argentina, where they were inspired by captain Clifford Aboagye and jumped out to a 3-0 lead, they head Group B on four points and can advance to the round of 16 with a draw against Panama in Auckland on Friday.
A number of Ghana’s youth talents are already owned by big European clubs, including forward Yaw Yeboah, who scored a penalty in Ghana’s 1-1 opening draw against Austria, at Manchester City.
Godfred Donsah (Cagliari), Emmanuel Boateng (Rio Ave), David Atanga (Red Bull Salzburg) and Emmanuel Ntim (Valenciennes) are among those already with a European pedigree Ghana are relying on at this tournament, where they have high ambitions.
“Our minimum target is to reach the semi-final, the performance clarified that,” he added.
“If we can maintain that performance in every game then getting there will not a be a very difficult task.
“But when we talk about tournament games, they’re compressed into a very short period with a small number of players.
“In this period there could be injuries so it’s the team that can manage these factors will find themselves in the last four ... then anything can happen.”