National Under-20 team coach Sulley Mohammed has made changes in his team as he leads the Black Satellites to the Sasol eight-nation tournament which kicks off on Wednesday in Gauteng, South Africa.


After a series of disappointing performances at the Toulon Football Tournament in France and a poor performance in an international friendly against Qatar played in Germany, the Ghana team would be hoping to improve in the Sasol eight-nations tournament.


Nine changes have been made by Sulley Mohammed to the squad that played in those two events as he named a 19-man team for the competition.


New faces coming into the squad which departs Accra on Sunday are: Osei Banahene, Alex Asamoah, Emmanuel Agyemang Badu, Baba Iddi, Hamza Abdulai, Malik Akowa, Techie Menson and Bismark Idan.


Ghana is placed in Group B together with Ivory Coast, Egypt and Lesotho for the ten-day competition.


Host nation, South Africa kick off the tournament against China on June 27 in Group A. The group also includes Cameroon and Botswana.



Ghana Squad:


Goalkeepers: Isaac Akong and Patrick Antwi


Defenders: Yaw Frimpong, Louis Quainoo, Yahaya Mohammed, John Boye, Samuel Enzemaba and Techie Menson


Midfielders: Felix Baffoe, Baba Iddi, Hamza Abdulai, Malik Akowa, Sanie Ahmed and Bismark Idan


Strikers: Osei Banahene, Eric Bekoe, Alex Asamoah and Emmanuel Agyemang Badu.

The national under-20 teams of Ghana the black satellites and Cote d’lvoire is to meet six other teams from around the world for the Toulon Festival of Football in France.


The eight teams have been divided into two groups of four of the tournament which begins on May 31 and ends on June 9.The Black satellites have been drawn in Group B alongside Japan, Holland and Portugal. The Satellites are reported to have hit top form and set to cause a stir in the campaign.


Over the weekend, the Ghanaian youth team put up a splendid performance to beat Top Allies, an Accra-based division one side 6-0, in a special friendly to underline their readiness for the 35th edition of the Toulon invitational tournament.


Ghana Onetouch premiership top scorer, Emmanuel Clottey, who grabbed a brace in the extermination of Top Allies, thinks the Satellites can upset the apply-cart in France

We play with a lot of cohesion and understanding from defence to attack and I strongly believe that will work in our favour, Clottey said.

Cote d’lvoire, the other West African contingent also joins China, Germany and host nation France, in Group A.


The group winners and runners-up advance to the semi-final.


Even though Satellites are making their second appearance in the eight-nation tournament, African countries like South Africa, Tunisia and Burkina Faso have participated in one of the previous tournaments; yet they failed to make meaningful impact on the competition which is telecasted live throughout Europe.


The Toulon Festival regularly attracts the best youth players and youth teams in the world.

Nigeria provides some of the best young talents in Female Football worldwide. Therefore, ScoutingTalents will keep you up to date about the current Female Football situation in Nigeria. Francis A. Akinremi, our Scouting Team Partner in Lagos, Nigeria reported about the following Event:


2nd of April 2006, 16:00 (local time): The "Falconets", Nigerian U20 Female National Team played one of their qualifying matches for the FIFA U20 Female World Cup in russia 2006 against Kenya Female U20 at the Ijebuode International Stadium in Ogun State, also soon to host the National Sports Festival.


The Falconets won the world cup qualification match easily 8:0 (5:0) and will meet Kenya U20 (nicknamed Arrambe Queens of Kenya) again for the second leg in Nairobi, Kenya. The Falconets dominated the entire 90 minutes and Kenya had no chances.
Already 5:0 up at half time, Nigeria´s females showed attractive attacking football. Also the second half showed very nice movement on and off the ball from a technically skilled Nigerian team. the Nigerian U20 Females added three more goals to their tally and the match ended 8:0.


This was the first international match ever to be played in the new stadium at Ijebuode. The international qualifying match between Nigeria U20 and Kenya U20 was used as a test run for the new stadium facilities as one of the venue for the Sports Festival "Gate Way 2006". Special guests at this event were been the Governor of the Ogun State, his wife and the Minister for Sports Dr. Ismaila Sambawa.