Ghana

The Ghana national football team, popularly known as the Black Stars, is the national association football team of Ghana and is controlled by the Ghana Football Association. Before gaining independence from Great Britain in 1957, the country played as the Gold Coast.

Although the team did not qualify for the senior FIFA World Cup until 2006, Ghana has enjoyed tremendous success at the youth level, winning the FIFA World Under-17 title twice and finishing runner-up twice. Ghana has also finished second at the FIFA World Youth Championship twice as well. Ghana became the 1st African Country to win a medal in Football at the 1992 Summer Olympics. The team have won the African Cup of Nations four times³ (in 1963, 1965, 1978, and 1982), making Ghana the second most successful team in the contest’s history, together with Cameroon, after Egypt won a fifth title in 2006.

After going through 2005 unbeaten, Ghana won the FIFA World Rankings Most Improved team of the year award (See section Best Mover of the Year) and by the time they reached the last 16 of the 2006 Germany World Cup to set up a date with Brazil, they looked like veterans of the competition, enchanting fans around the world with their own brand of quick, free-flowing football