A statement on the England FA website confirmed the game will take place on 29 March. Despite the long history between both countries, they have never played each other at senior level. Ghana achieved the highest place of all African teams at the World Cup in South Africa last year, and were a penalty shoot-out away from the semi-finals. The Black Stars also made it to the final of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, where they lost to Egypt. Several key members of the African side like Michael Essien, John Pantsil, Asamoah Gyan, Richard Kingston and John Mensah play their club football in the Premier League. There have been a handful of meetings at youth level, Ghana beat England convincingly 4-0 at the Fifa U20s World Cup two years ago, while England U18s emerged the victors in 2007.

BERTRAND TRAORE BURKINA YOUNGSTER AIMS TO PLAY FOR CHELSEA

Junior tournaments like the African Under-17 championship are often used to unearth new footballing talents but one of the big stars of the just concluded event in Rwanda had already been spotted. Burkina Faso midfielder Bertrand Traore is only 15 years old but he could be about to join English Premier League
champions Chelsea. The youngster attracted their attention at the Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria in 2009, where, at 14, he was the tournament’s youngest player, and they have followed him ever since. That interest has sparked some very big ambition in the teenager.”I want to play in the first team for Chelsea, I want to play the European Champions League with the big names,” the teenager told the BBC’s African sports programme Fast Track.”I want to play every match for Chelsea and in the future I want to become the best player in Africa and maybe Europe also.”

Burkina Faso won the tournament for the first time after beating host Rwanda 2-1. Bertrand Traore’s talent has been on display for all to see during the U17 competition in Rwanda, with Sellas Tetteh, coach of the Rwandan national team and the man who led Ghana to U20 World Cup triumph two years ago, heaping praise on the young Burkinabe.”He’s a great player, a wonderful player, delightful to watch, intelligent on the ball, a good passer of the ball, fearless, daring, he’s the kind of player you love to see all the time. He has brought life to this tournament,” Tetteh said.

Manchester United and Marseille are amongst the clubs who are apparently as impressed as Chelsea and Tetteh, but Bertrand Traore says he wants to make his mark at Stamford Bridge.”I like Chelsea because we have Africans there; Drogba, Essien, Obi,” he said. There are restrictions on European football clubs signing young players, so Traore knows he might have to wait.”I have to continue to play well in every game, I have to work hard if I want to become a big professional player.”He will be helped in that preparation by his brother Alain, who is a professional in France with Auxerre.”I learn many things from him, he shoots well from free-kicks, so when he comes for holidays in Burkina he teaches me free-kicks; he gives me advice.”

There is still a very long way to go for the young man with big ambitions but if things go well for him, Bertrand Traore could be a very well-known name in the not too distant future. WAM

At a press briefing hosted at the Ghanaian High Commission by His Excellency Prof. Kwaku Danso – Boafo,the Ghanaian High Commissioner to the UK, on February 24th, 2011, for the UK and European media on the up coming friendly match between Ghana Black Stars and the English team, being packaged by the English FA and Mel Goldberg Law Firm (representing Ghana), Mr Stuart Turner who is the head of broadcasting of English FA expressed their gladness on how the match is generating excitement beyond their expectation. He stated that it is the first time that an away team has sold more than 10.000 tickets at Wembley.

Mr Mel Goldberg in response confirmed that the 20,000 tickets issued to the Ghanaian team were already sold out 4 weeks before the match and people are now searching for where to get more tickets. Mr Goldberg also indicated that pressures are already mounting for the confirmation of the second leg of the match for Accra. The High Commissioner expressed his gratitude on the development; He recalled that history would remind us how famous Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana led a solid foundation right from the independence in 1957, that football played a crucial role in developing the relationship of Ghana and the outside world, especially the English. He made reference to how President Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya in his aspiration for rivalry invited the Ghana Black Stars to a friendly match on their independence celebration; much to his amazement, the Black Stars trashed the Kenyan team 14 -2. The High Commissioner reassured both the English team and their fans that this match would be a feaster and a match to remember.

“It would be a mile stone in African Football” He wished both teams the very best. The occasion came to a close with Mr Turner handing over to the High Commissioner some English jerseys while the Ghanaian 2010 Beauty Queen and her train which added glamour to the day, FIFA representatives and others in attendance watched on.

TEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ASAMOAH GYAN

He is the African hero in the 2010 World Cup, his dance steps earned him the name ‘football Michael Jackson’ and he is Sunderland’s main hitman. But Asamoah has much more that you need to know.

1) Asamoah Gyan was born on November 22nd, 1985, in the Ghanaian town of Accra.

2) For him football began at the Accra Academy, but he was soon picked up by the local team, Liberty Professionals, who play in Ghana’s top division. Perhaps not the most famous club, but Liberty prides themselves on having nurtured some of the country’s best talent, including John Pantsil, Sulley Muntari and Michael Essien.

3) Ten goals in sixteen league appearances were enough for Udinese to snap up the 17 year-old in the summer of 2003. He was one in a spate of Ghanaian footballers to hit Serie A at this time, along with Stephen Appiah, Sulley Muntari and John Mensah.

4) Moving to Italy acted as a catalyst for his international career. In November 2003, three days before his 18th birthday, he announced his arrival onto the international scene by scoring on his debut against Somalia in a crucial World Cup qualifying game. This made him the youngest player ever to score for Ghana, and quickly made him an object of the fans’ affections. He scored four goals in seven matches during the successful qualifying campaign. When the 2006 World Cup finals came around he was quick off the mark again, scoring after only 68 seconds of their opening group game against the Czech Republic, becoming Ghana’s first ever player to find the net in the World Cup finals.

5) After just a year with Udinese he was struggling to get into the first team, so he was loaned out to Serie B side Modena for two years in 2004 where he scored 15 goals in 53 league matches.

6) 2008 was an eventful year for Gyan, as he almost walked out, along with his brother Baffour, from the African Cup of Nations following criticism of the team. Having been convinced by team mates to remain, he helped Ghana go on to finish third.

7) Following his histrionics he returned to Udinese, but was dogged by injury, and never played for the club again. He moved to French side Rennes that summer for a fee of 8 million euro. Before moving to the Stadium of Light he had notched up 14 goals in 47 appearances for the Ligue 1 side.

8) It wasn’t until the World Cup in South Africa that he really made a name for himself. He scored in both of Ghana’s opening games, earning them four points, and securing qualification to the last 16, where they faced USA. In a tight affair Gyan shattered the Amercian’s dreams in extra-time, making Ghana only the third African nation to reach the quarter-finals, along with Cameroon and Senegal.

9) Sadly for Gyan it was the heartache suffered against Uruguay that will stick in people’s minds. With penalties looming Ghana were awarded a spot-kick in the last minute of extra time, but Gyan smashed it into the crossbar. He still stepped up to take the first penalty in the shoot-out, but despite scoring his, Ghana were knocked out.

10) Over the years he’s developed a reputation as Africa’s answer to Michael Jackson. For dancing, before you ask