Management Committee chairman of the Black Starlets of Ghana, Lawyer Kweku Eyiah has said that Ghanaians should not expect a national U-17 team ready to win trophies.

The Black Starlets are two-time Africa Youth Championship winners in 1995 and 1999. They’ve also been FIFA U-17 World Cup Champions in 1991 and
1995 and a two-time Runner-up in 1993 and 1997.

The junior national team has always been a force to reckon with in youth tournaments but off late, they’ve been poor.

But Lawyer Eyiah insist the current nationwide search for talents is purposely for future stars and not for immediate success.

“I think the focus is clearly to build a team of future stars. It is not about winning trophies, it is not about performing excellently at the U-17 tournament levels and within few years down the line, most of the players go on (premature) retirement and others into oblivion — forgotten stars,” Mr. Eyiah told TV3 Ghana.

“What we intend to do is to unearth talents for the future. We want to build a team that within few years, we can have players in the Black Stars. If a player is discovered here and such a player makes it to the World Cup in Qatar 2022, it means that we have done a good a job and that’s what we are looking at,” he added.

The search for the next set of senior national teams ended in Ashanti Region last week and the technical team is now in the Greater Accra region.