Ghana engaged in age cheating to dominate youth football in the past – Ex-Ghana player reveals

A former Ghana International, Stephan Frimpong Manso has asserted that Ghana dominated youth football in the early ’90s because of age cheating.

Ghana won two Fifa World Cup at the Under-17 level in 1991 and 1995. The Black Starlets again played in the 1993 and 1997 finals.

Sharing his opinion on why Ghana has struggled to replicate the same performances in recent years, Frimpong Manso – a former Asante Kotoko player and coach – said the county used overaged players in the success story of the U-17 team.

“In the olden days, we used over-aged players for the U-17 competitions and we are now suffering in the long run. Back then there was no MRI to check the real age of players so we used over-aged players, ” he told Happy FM.

“We don’t get time for the youth side and our obsession of always wanting to win is a problem,” Frimpong Manso further revealed.

The U-17 national team have been struggling to qualify for competition in recent years.

Ghana’s only recent success at the Youth level was in 2009, the Black Satellites defeated Brazil to win the World Cup to become the only African team at that level to achieve that.