Three Airtel Rising Star players to get black starlets call-up

The Technical Director of the Ghana Football Association, Francis Oti-Akenten has identified three potential candidates for the nation’s Under 17 team,The Black Starlets in the on-going Airtel Rising Football star competition.

Mr Oti-Akenten expressed delight after watching the young talented players display great football skills in the on-going competition.

The former Black Starlets coach in an interview at the end of the Zone 4 competition said; “We have already been to Takoradi, Konongo, Wa and now Tamale. We have seen some fantastic players and here in Tamale we have seen many potential national team players like Abubakar Malik the male best player and other two players from this zone who we asked to get ready to be called into the national U-17 team,”

Expressing his happiness, particularly, with the innovative structure of the competition since it will help the GFA to recruit quality players at a young age for the future.

“I believe that these players will be nurtured well by our youth coaches to bring out the huge potential in these players. The future of football in this country is very bright if we continue to invest in grassroot football and I especially want to thank Airtel Ghana for a partnering with  GFA for this great tournament, ” Oti -Akenteng added.

The Airtel Rising Stars competition since its commencement has seen great talents produced to represent the nation at various age competitions. Sandra Owusu-Ansah, Kubrah Abubakari, Florence Fosuaa Annor and Belinda Anane all Airtel Rising Stars players represented Ghana at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup tournament in Costa Rica not forgetting Priscilla Okyere, a participant of the maiden edition of Airtel Rising Stars who led the Black Maidens to win Africa’s first medal at a FIFA organized event for women, scoring the winning goal; against Germany in that competition.

Airtel Rising Stars is a sports talent initiative introduced by Airtel that seeks to discover and nurture talented under 17 years male and female footballers who otherwise would have gone unnoticed. The initiative runs in all 17 Airtel operations across Africa and seeks to bring to light the skills of these young and talented individuals by giving them the platform to become world class football stars.