Starlets' Revamped

Accra, July 5, GNA - The national under-17 soccer team, the Black Starlets, have been revamped with the inclusion of 10 new players ahead of the World under-17 Soccer Championship in Peru in September.

The new recruits including two goalies, also have two premier division players, Stephen Afful of Real Sportive and Isaac Anderson of Sekondi Hasaacas and Joseph Halm of relegated Accra Great Olympics. Coach David Duncan told the GNA Sports at Winneba that the first 18 players who participated in the Gambia African Under-17 soccer tournament have been retained but the other six who could not make the trip have been discarded.

The team began residential camping at the Winneba Sports College on Monday and would undergo rigorous training regimen for the next three months before embarking on a two-nation European tour and America before the tournament.

The Starlets would play the junior sides of Chelsea and Middlesbrough and the English under-17 soccer team.

From the United Kingdom the team is expected to trek to France to engage the French under-17 team and later to Florida in the United States of America to battle their under-17 side. Coach Duncan said the 28-man squad would be pruned down before the Peru tournament.

The Starlets won silver at the Gambia tournament after losing 0-1 to the host nation under bizarre circumstances. The team is one of Africa's three representatives at the World under-17 championship in Peru.