Kwesi Nyantakyi: Youth development key in Ghana progress

One of the youngest football fedartion presidents on the African continent, Kwesi Nyantakyi attributed the performance of the "Black Stars" in reaching the quarterfinals of the 2010 Fifa World Cup™ against Uruguay next Friday to a proper development structures in place as far as Ghanaian football was concerned.

Nyantakyo lamented the fact that both Jonathan Mensah and Andre "Dede" Ayew will be suspended for the last eight match at Soccer City on Friday, but felt they have the depth to carry them through, particularly with the responsbility of representing the entire African lying so heavily on their shoulders.

He is also mindful of the fact that if they negotiate their way past Uruguay, they could come face-to-face with their old nemesis Brazil who eliminated them in the last 16 at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, provided of course Brazil themselves had been able to beat the Netherlands who stand in their way.

"We sat down with coach Milovan Rejavac and mapped a way forward for Ghanaian football," said Nyantakyi. "We knew what we wanted to achieve and sold this idea to Rajevac, who also bought into the idea and then structures were put in place.

Our national Under-20 won the African and World Youth Championships. And from that squad, the senior coach promoted at least eight of those members to the Black Stars.

"We took those youngsters to the African Nations Cup tournament in Angola and they acquited themselves very well in reaching the final, where they lost to Egypt.

We were convinced that these boys were ready for the big time and when the coach included most of them in his World Cup squad, he had our blessings.

Andre is already an estbalished star in the senior team and the experience together with some of the other promoted members of the Satelites have gained in this tournament is invaluable."

Indeed Ghana are leading the way and their future looks bright, when one considers that even without their driving force Michael Essien, withdrawn from the squad due to injury, and former captain Stephen Appiah not yet at his combative best, this young team has been able to confound the world with some outstanding performances led by Asamoah Gyan.

Nyantakyi revealed that most of the boys from the U20 squad will form the core of the Under-23 team that would be qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games in London and hopefully the experience they are gaining in exchanging tackles wth the likes of Landon Donovan will stand them in good stead.

"We are still soaking the triumph over the United States," said Nyantakyi. "And the boys are relaxing after such an ernery sapping encounter that went into extra time. "But the coach has insisted that the game is gone and forgotten and now the focus is on Uruguay. They have to focus on one game at a time and not think about who the next opponent would be.

"The trouble is that they could anticipate a meeting with Brazil in the next round and that could be suicidal. They could either stumble or find their opponents are not Brazil in the next round. So it is imperative to concentrate and focus on the next opponents which is Uruguay."

A lot of heroes have emerged out of this Ghanaian side, with goalkeeper Richard Kingson played a blinder and preventing an avalanche of goals against the United States, while John Pantsil, Andre Ayew, Gyan, Prince Kevin Boateng have also come to the party, driving Ghana to unprecednted levels and giving Africa hope that finally, we could have a team going all the way to the final - only if they believe they can.