{"id":116704,"date":"2026-04-03T11:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/uncategorized\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams"},"modified":"2026-04-03T12:35:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:35:06","slug":"invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams","title":{"rendered":"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Ghana. <\/strong> <\/span><b>Veteran football administrator Alhaji Abdul Karim Grusah has urged increased investment in juvenile football, stressing the need to strengthen grassroots development to produce quality players for Ghana\u2019s national teams.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Speaking in an interview, Alhaji Grusah said calls for more locally based players to be included in the national team must be backed by improved player development structures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGhanaians call for local players, but can we confidently call players from the Premier League to represent Ghana at the highest level?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that although local talent remains vital, the current Ghana Premier League lacks the strength to consistently produce players capable of competing internationally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Premier League is not strong enough to produce us good players,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Alhaji Grusah appealed to Mr Kofi Iddie Adams, the Minister for Sports and Recreation, to prioritise juvenile football nationwide, adding that sustained grassroots investment was key to identifying and grooming future national team players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI call on the Sports Minister to help boost juvenile football so we can get good and quality players for the national team,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>He emphasised that rebuilding Ghana football must begin with youth development rather than short-term solutions at the national team level.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Ghana<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Ghana. Veteran football administrator Alhaji Abdul Karim Grusah has urged increased investment in juvenile football, stressing the need to strengthen grassroots development to produce quality players for Ghana\u2019s national teams. Speaking in an interview, Alhaji Grusah said calls for more locally based players to be included in the national team must be backed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":116703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[429],"class_list":["post-116704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-ghana"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams - Ghana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Ghana. Veteran football administrator ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Ghana. Veteran football administrator ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-03T11:17:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-03T12:35:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2026\/04\/sm_1775219242.563309.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-03T11:17:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-03T12:35:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams\"},\"wordCount\":223,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2026\/04\/sm_1775219242.563309.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"ghana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams\",\"name\":\"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams - Ghana\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2026\/04\/sm_1775219242.563309.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-03T11:17:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-03T12:35:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"-article-header-tag\\\"> Africa-Press - Ghana. Veteran football administrator ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2026\/04\/sm_1775219242.563309.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2026\/04\/sm_1775219242.563309.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/\",\"name\":\"Ghana\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams - Ghana","description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Ghana. Veteran football administrator ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams","og_description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Ghana. Veteran football administrator ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams","og_site_name":"Ghana","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2026-04-03T11:17:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-03T12:35:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2026\/04\/sm_1775219242.563309.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams","datePublished":"2026-04-03T11:17:20+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-03T12:35:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams"},"wordCount":223,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2026\/04\/sm_1775219242.563309.jpg","keywords":["ghana"],"articleSection":["all news","sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams","name":"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams - Ghana","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2026\/04\/sm_1775219242.563309.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-03T11:17:20+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-03T12:35:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Ghana. Veteran football administrator ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2026\/04\/sm_1775219242.563309.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2026\/04\/sm_1775219242.563309.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/invest-in-juvenile-football-to-build-strong-national-teams#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Invest in Juvenile Football to Build Strong National Teams"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/","name":"Ghana","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116740,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116704\/revisions\/116740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}