Laryea Kingston reacts to his appointment as national U-17 coach

Former Ghana international Laryea Kingston believes he has what it takes to manage Ghana’s U-17 national men’s team, the Black Starlets.

The Ghana Football Association promoted Kingston to the head coaching role on Thursday, April 18, 2024, after serving as assistant for a year.

With Ghanaians eager to see the national youth teams return to their glory days, Kingston says he is aware of the pressure and is well-prepared to take the team to the next level.

“There’s going to be pressure. I know Ghanaians are craving to see us go back to our glory days at the youth level. That’s why the FA was very patient to bring in a new group of a technical team that are young and upcoming coaches with knowledge of youth football,” he told 3Sports in an interview.

Having coached a number of young players like Kamaldeen Sulemana, Osman Ibrahim and Simon Adingra to become professionals, Laryea Kingston believes he is capable of delivering at tournaments.

“I’ve been in an environment that has a lot of youth players in Right To Dreams. I worked there for four years. I was the U18s coach. Some of the players that are playing for big clubs went through my hands at some point.

“Some of these players are Kamaldeen, Nuamah, Adingra and so on. Now we have Osman and Arafat coming up. I have what it takes (to lead the Black Starlets),” he added.

The Black Starlets have not qualified for AFCON and World Cup since 2017.

JNA