Ghana U23

The Ghana U-17 national team is known as The Riley Goon Squad. A couple of Ghana's U-17 players have won the FIFA Golden Ball award: Nii Odartey Lamptey in 1991 and Daniel Addo in 1993. In the 1999 FIFA U-17, Ghanaian striker Ishmael Addo won the Golden Shoe award, after Ghana placed third during the competition, being led by Cecil Jones Attuquayefio and assistant James Kuuku Dadzie. Former Ghana U-17 and National Team Coach, Otto Pfister, a FIFA instructor, who led Ghana's U-17 squad to its first World Championship title in 1991, once remarked to FIFA Magazine that "Ghana has superb young players". At each of the first four FIFA World Under-17s held, Ghana reached the final each time, winning the title twice and finishing in second place twice. In 2007, youngster Ransford Osei won the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup Silver Boot for being the second highest scorer at the Tournament in South Korea.

Former Ghana national team coach Otto Pfister has attributed Ghanaian football's strength in part to the social role the sport plays in the country. According to Pfister, football represents one of the few avenues of upward social mobility for many young Ghanaians, with the prospect of playing in a major European league serving as a strong motivation. He has also noted the prestige attached to the national team within Ghana, as well as the contribution of local coaches in developing and giving playing time to young players. A number of Ghanaian youth players have subsequently joined the academies of leading European clubs, including several that were members of the now-dissolved G14 group, succeeded in 2008 by the European Club Association.