Classroom lesson · Sport · 🇬🇭 Ghana

The Black Stars - Ghana's football team

One of Africa's most loved national teams

A football on a grassy pitch in Ghana

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Football is the most popular sport in Ghana, by far. The national team, the Black Stars, is loved across the whole country - and across all of Africa. The Black Stars have played in four men's World Cups, won the Africa Cup of Nations four times, and produced some of the most famous African footballers ever.

Tell me more

Ghana's flag has a single black star in the middle of it - and that is where the team gets its name. The black star stands for the freedom and hope of African people. Wearing the badge on your shirt is a serious thing for a Ghanaian player.

Many of the world's best footballers have come from Ghana. Players like Abedi Pele, Asamoah Gyan, Michael Essien and Thomas Partey have played for huge clubs in England, Spain, Italy and beyond. They started out kicking a ball around dusty courtyards as children and ended up in the biggest stadiums in the world.

The Black Stars' most famous World Cup run was in 2010 in South Africa. They reached the quarter-finals - the last eight teams - which made them only the third African team in history to get that far. The whole continent of Africa was cheering for them.

Football in Ghana isn't just the national team. In every neighbourhood, in every village, kids gather to play after school. They make goals from stones or piles of jumpers. They play barefoot, in flip-flops, in school shoes. A football game can start anywhere there is a flat piece of ground and a ball.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Why might one sport become so popular in a country that almost everyone plays it?
  2. 02What does it feel like to support a team? Why do we get attached to them?
  3. 03If you could design a national team's badge for your country, what would you put on it?
Try this

Classroom activity

Hold a 'Black Stars' mini-tournament in the playground. Split the class into teams. Each team picks a one-word name, a colour, and an animal mascot. Play short matches. After, talk about what made teamwork work - or not.