The captain of the Black Stars, Stephen “Tornado” Appiah has said Ghana has a bright chance of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup after the draw for the competition last Friday in Germany.

In an exclusive interview with GHANAWEB this evening, the captain pointed out that with the necessary preparation and stability in the team, the Black Stars should make it to the World Cup for the first time.

Ghana was drawn in Group 2 alongside South Africa, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Dr Congo and Cape Verde.

The 22-year-old Juventus midfielder said, “ As we will not be playing in the Nations Cup, we should arrange for friendly matches both at home and abroad to keep the team together. He added that “ we should be take the Under 23 Olympic qualifiers too seriously since the chunk of the squad is made up of players from that division.”

He said: even though South Africa looks the strongest team, the DR Congo are also a threat to our ambitions.” “ Burkina Faso I have noted have made giant strides in their football, they can’t be ignored. I hope we have learnt our lessons from our match against Uganda that led to our failure to qualify for the Nations Cup. We will not underrate any team.” he added.

Ghana has the finest opportunity of making an impact in respect of the quality of players it has playing the in top leagues of Europe. With the highest number of players playing in the UEFA Champions League this season, Black Stars players are expected to translate those experiences to bear on the game in Africa. Ghana’s players playing in the UEFA Champions League are Sammy Kuffuor of Bayern Munich, Stephen Appiah of Juventus, Yakubu Abubakri and Anthony Obodai of Ajax Amsterdam, Michael Essien of Bastia and Kofi Amponsah of AEK Athens.

Appiah the mood in camp in their last match against Somalia indicates that : “the players are will to die for the country and they are capable of winning matches to ensure qualification."

On Juventus he said “the past week has been a nightmare for the whole team but it happens to every team sometimes and we hope to be back to our winning ways in our next. Coach Lippi told us not to let the result get us down and that we should have our focus of winning the Italian league title”

He was very happy to have voted among three of the BBC African Player of the Year Award for 2003.He thanked the fans who went out on the internet to vote for him. He said: “I am happy that the fans went out there to vote for me. I want to express my appreciation for the confidence they have shown in me.”

The top three candidates for the award have now entered a second round of voting which will end on 31 December. The general public can vote at this website link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/africa/3261193.stm