Ghana

The man who wears the No. 1 and, as of these last days before Toronto, the man tipped to keep it — though Queiroz has not closed the contest and the goalkeeper question is the most genuinely open call in the side. Ati-Zigi started the Wales friendly and has edged back ahead of the home-based Benjamin Asare after Asare's error in the Mexico defeat, helped by a steady season as St Gallen's first choice in the Swiss top flight, where he has been a fixture for several years. At twenty-nine he is squarely in a goalkeeper's prime, with around thirty caps spread across the better part of a decade as Ghana's most-used custodian since the Qatar cycle without ever quite being made untouchable. This is his first World Cup, a reward for persistence rather than a coronation, and the job in front of him is the unglamorous one Queiroz's plan demands: launch the long ball toward Jordan Ayew, command his box on the set-pieces Ghana will concede, and keep a back line of debutants calm. He is the senior figure in a goalkeeping group with little tournament mileage between them, and the steadier presence the patched defence in front of him badly needs.

The romance of the squad and its one home-based player, Asare would be the first locally based goalkeeper to feature for Ghana at a World Cup were he to play — a milestone for the domestic game that Hearts of Oak stand to be paid handsomely for. He was the qualifying No. 1, keeping clean sheets through the campaign and earning the shirt on merit before an error inside the opening minutes against Mexico reopened the contest and tilted it back toward Ati-Zigi. At thirty-three he is a late bloomer arriving at the international stage well past the age most goalkeepers debut, which lends his presence here a quiet poignancy: very probably his one tournament, won by form at home rather than a career abroad. Whether Queiroz trusts a Ghana Premier League goalkeeper against England's movement is the live question; his selection alone is already a statement about the home game's worth, and a rare bridge between the diaspora-heavy squad and the league the country actually watches.

The third goalkeeper and, on the present reading, the spectator of the group — a London-born twenty-five-year-old who came through West Ham's academy and now keeps goal for St Patrick's Athletic in the League of Ireland, a modest perch for an international squad member. He has a single cap to his name and is here for cover and for the future rather than to play, the youngest of the three and the one whose World Cup, in all likelihood, is an apprenticeship watched from the bench. If he develops, the experience of a tournament camp at twenty-five is the kind of thing that pays off a cycle later.

The likeliest starter at left-back and one of the more travelled defenders in the group, Mensah is the conservative half of Queiroz's asymmetric full-back pairing — the one who stays home while the right-back pushes on, holding the back line's shape so the runners ahead of him can gamble. At twenty-seven he is in his prime years and on his second World Cup after Qatar, which makes him, by the standards of this stripped-down squad, an experienced head; he has spoken about adapting to the new manager's far more intensive defensive demands. His club season came at Auxerre in Ligue 1, where he has settled as a regular after a nomadic career that took him through Salzburg's system, Vitória and loans across Europe. The output is modest — he is not a defender who chips in goals — but his value to this side is positional discipline against quick wingers, exactly the trait a man-oriented block leans on. He is part of the small core that carries over from the last tournament, a bridge between the Qatar group and the newcomers around him.

On the evidence of the Wales friendly, the one centre-back whose place looks settled — composed and commanding on the night, strong in the air, and now the defender Ghana's set-piece attack is built around, the chief target meeting Jordan Ayew's delivery into the box. That matters doubly for a side designed to score from dead balls when it cannot control open play. At twenty-two Adjetey is the emerging figure of the rebuilt defence, a player who moved to Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga on transfer deadline day in February in a deal worth around ten million euros, a clear step up that marks him as one to watch beyond this tournament. This is his first World Cup, thrust upon him early by the injuries to Salisu and Djiku, and it doubles as a shop window: a young central defender given a leading role at a finals before he has fully established himself at club level. He is the future of the back line as much as its present, asked to anchor a unit improvised around him with barely any time to drill it.

The man who started alongside Adjetey against Wales and holds, for now, the inside line on the other centre-back berth — though it is the least settled spot in the team, with Mumin, Luckassen and Seidu all in the conversation after the loss of both first-choice defenders. At twenty-seven and in the heart of his career, Opoku has built a steady living at İstanbul Başakşehir in the Turkish top flight, a respectable level if short of the leagues Ghana's golden-generation defenders graced. His international standing was peripheral until the injury crisis pulled him toward the first eleven; this is his first World Cup, a late and unexpected promotion for a player who looked, a year ago, like fringe cover. His job is the plain one of a Queiroz centre-back: stay deep, hold the line, defend the box, and resist the temptation to follow runners out of position when the block jumps. He is less a part of any golden core than a serviceable hand pressed into duty by circumstance.

The Wales evidence puts Senaya in at right-back, where his attacking instinct gives Ghana the width and asymmetry the system wants — against Wales he inverted in possession and made decoy runs to free the winger inside him, turning a full-back's job into something closer to an auxiliary midfielder's. At twenty-five he is an emerging international with only a couple of caps, a France-born defender who has come through at Auxerre, club-mate of Gideon Mensah and Elisha Owusu in a notable Ligue 1 cluster. This is his first World Cup and very nearly his introduction to the national team at all, which makes the role a substantial one to hand a newcomer. The caveat the analysts keep raising is that against the stronger two, England and Croatia, Queiroz may prefer the more defensive Alidu Seidu and ask Senaya to make way — the choice between width and security being one of the live calls of the group. For now he is the more adventurous option, and the part of the team that turns a back four into something with a forward edge.

The defensive alternative at right-back and a versatile cover man across the back line, Seidu is the option Queiroz is expected to reach for when security matters more than overlap — against England and Croatia above all. At twenty-five he is in his prime and a more established international than the man ahead of him, with two dozen caps, though his season was shaped by a long recovery from an anterior cruciate injury before his return to the national side late in 2025. He plays for Rennes in Ligue 1, a solid top-flight home, and his value here is adaptability: a natural right-back who can shuffle inside to centre-back if the patched defence springs another leak. This is his first World Cup, reached after a hard year of rehabilitation, and his standing is that of a useful, hard-running defender rather than a certain starter — the kind of squad member a manager building around discipline is glad to have.

A senior centre-back recalled into the pairing conversation, Mumin returns from a long anterior cruciate layoff that cost him the best part of a year and arrives short of match rhythm rather than match fitness. At twenty-seven he should be in his prime, and in a fully fit squad he might have started; instead he is one of several contesting the berth beside Adjetey, his case resting on experience and aerial presence against the rust of so little recent football. He plays for Rayo Vallecano in La Liga, a competitive Spanish top-flight side, which keeps his standing respectable. This is his first World Cup, and the timing is cruel — a defender who fought back from a serious injury only to reach the finals still searching for sharpness. He is part of the established core the injuries thinned, valuable for what he knows even when his legs are not yet all the way back.

The late call-up, summoned to replace Alexander Djiku when the centre-back failed a fitness test days before the squad was lodged — a Dutch-born defender who recently completed his switch to Ghana and now finds himself at a World Cup almost by accident of timing. At thirty he is the most experienced of the centre-back options in raw years, with a single Ghana cap, and his season at Pafos in Cyprus carried more weight than the league's profile suggests, including a run of Champions League appearances with the islanders' surprise European campaign. This is his first World Cup and, given his age and late arrival to the international fold, in all likelihood his only one. His job is to be ready if the improvised back line loses another man; he is squad depth pressed into a fragile situation, the embodiment of a defence assembled from whoever was fit, available and willing.

Recalled for the first time in nearly three years, Baba Rahman is the veteran left-back option behind Gideon Mensah and one of the more familiar names from an earlier chapter of the Black Stars, a survivor of the Chelsea-loanee years who has since rebuilt his career in Greece. At thirty-one he is a veteran in the truest sense, his return earned by a strong Super League season at PAOK — around thirty-five appearances with a handful of goals and assists, the productive form that prompted Queiroz to bring him back into the fold. There has been speculation that the manager might use him as an inverted full-back to add a body in midfield, the kind of wrinkle his experience could carry. This is, after a long absence, very likely his last act in a Ghana shirt and his first World Cup since the wilderness years; he is the last of a fading generation of full-backs, recalled less for the future than because the squad needed a senior head who had been there before.

One of the deepest of the squad's depth picks, Oppong Peprah is a young centre-back on the books of Nice in Ligue 1, brought along for cover in a defensive unit hollowed out by injury. The verified picture of him is thin: he is among the World Cup debutants, a defender of the new generation given a tournament camp at an age when the experience itself is the reward. He is unlikely to feature barring further misfortune to those ahead of him, and his place here speaks to how short Ghana ran of fit centre-backs rather than to any settled standing in the side. If the rebuild around him takes, he is one of the names that could matter in cycles to come; for now he is a watching apprentice.

The organising survivor and vice-captain, Partey is the player the whole structure leans on — the deep-lying anchor who steps out of the first phase to start Ghana's attacks and the calmest head in a dressing room full of newcomers, the last man standing from the side's recent core. At thirty-two the legs are fading and the minutes have grown scarce: a bit-part final season at Villarreal after leaving Arsenal on a free, low on rhythm, and now a free agent from the end of June. Against Wales he looked short of intensity, conceding fouls and labouring to keep pace before he was withdrawn at the interval, and asking him to carry a brutal group of death is a heavy weight for a player no longer at his physical peak. He is also the squad's lightning rod away from the pitch, selected while facing a criminal trial in England on seven counts of rape and one of sexual assault involving four women, all of which he denies and to which he has pleaded not guilty; he is on conditional bail and the case is listed for late 2026, clear of the tournament. Sections of the support booed him against Wales, and Queiroz has staked his own credibility on keeping him, defending the choice on presumption-of-innocence grounds and asking that judgement wait for the courts. The footballing question for these weeks is whether his legs and the dressing room's morale hold; the larger matter, properly, is one for a court of law, not a football page. This is, in all likelihood, his final World Cup, a last tournament for the bridge between the golden generation's tail and whatever Ghana becomes next.

The ball-winner who partnered Partey in the double pivot against Wales and looks set to keep the job, Owusu is the legs beside the organiser — the one who covers ground, screens the back four and does the unglamorous defensive running a man-oriented block lives on. At twenty-eight he is in his prime and quietly one of the squad's more dependable hands, a regular for Auxerre in Ligue 1 alongside club-mates Senaya and Mensah, his game built on positioning and tackling rather than goals, of which there are none for Ghana. His international standing rose as the midfield was thinned and reshaped; this is his first World Cup, a deserved arrival for a player who has been a steady professional without ever being a headline. His importance is plain in a side this short of energy in the centre — with Partey's legs going, Owusu is the engine that has to do the chasing, and the contest with Kwasi Sibo for the role is one of the genuine selection calls.

Projected to start in the attacking-midfield slot and one of the more exciting young talents in the group, Fatawu is the direct, dribbling presence Ghana need to carry the ball forward in a side otherwise built on running without it — a winger by trade, deployed centrally or wide depending on the shape of the day. At twenty-two he is an emerging player whose season was defined by a comeback: returning from an anterior cruciate injury and a long layoff to score three goals in his first nine Championship appearances for Leicester, sharp form on his return even as the club endured a grim campaign that ended in relegation. This is his first World Cup and a real breakout stage, the kind of tournament that can announce a young attacker to a wider audience. With Kudus gone, the burden of beating a man and creating something from nothing falls partly to him, though Queiroz must weigh his starting place against the claims of the fitter-firing Nuamah. He is the future of Ghana's attack as much as a present asset, and the player the team will hope can supply the spark a counter-attacking side otherwise lacks.

The alternative ball-winner, Sibo is in direct competition with Elisha Owusu for the holding role beside Partey and offers a similar profile — a combative central midfielder who breaks up play and keeps things simple. At twenty-seven he is in his prime, a player who has made his career in Spain and now turns out for Real Oviedo, with a modest handful of caps that mark him as a relatively recent addition to the national picture. This is his first World Cup, and his standing is that of a useful squad option rather than a certain starter: if Queiroz wants more physical presence in the centre against the bigger sides, Sibo is the man he turns to. He is depth in the one area Ghana can least afford to be thin, valuable precisely because the legs in midfield are stretched.

A carry-over from the Qatar squad and one of the more naturally gifted wide players in the group, Kamaldeen is a quick, direct winger who started against Wales but profiles, for the tournament, as a rotation option in a crowded forward line rather than a guaranteed starter. At twenty-four he should be entering his peak, yet the season worked against him: a move to Atalanta in Serie A that promised a step up delivered a low-output, injury-disrupted campaign, around thirty-seven appearances but only a couple of goals, his rhythm broken by an adductor strain in December. The pace and the dribbling that made his name remain, which is why Queiroz keeps him close, but the end product has long lagged the talent. This is his second World Cup, and at his age it should be far from his last; he is part of the small bridge from Qatar, a player the country still hopes will fulfil a promise that has yet to fully arrive.

The youngest man in the squad and one of its brightest hopes for the years ahead, Yirenkyi scored the goal against Wales that briefly looked like winning Queiroz his first match — a twenty-year-old stepping up at exactly the moment the rebuild needed a young face to believe in. He has been Nordsjælland's standout in the Danish top flight, named the club's player of the season and, by report, drawing interest from some of Europe's biggest names, the classic trajectory of the Danish league as a finishing school for African talent. At twenty he is the clearest embodiment of Ghana's future in the squad, a player whose position has been read variously as midfield or defence and who offers Queiroz a versatile young option. This is his first World Cup and a breakout stage in the purest sense; whatever happens in this group, he is the name most likely to define the next Black Stars cycle, here to learn and, on the Wales evidence, already capable of more.

The squad's one uncapped outfield player at the time of selection, Boakye is a wide attacker on the books of Saint-Étienne in France, a fringe pick whose inclusion raised eyebrows precisely because he arrived with no international minutes behind him. At twenty-five he is neither an emerging teenager nor an established hand, but a player Queiroz evidently saw something in during the audition phase — the verified detail on him is thin, and his role is depth rather than a defined job in the side. This is his first World Cup and, on present standing, one he is most likely to watch; his place is a reminder of how widely Queiroz cast the net to fill a squad gutted by absence.

The captain and the spine of what remains, Jordan Ayew is the focal point of the whole side — the target striker who leads the line, holds the long ball up for the runners to arrive, and delivers the set-pieces that are among Ghana's few reliable ways to score. At thirty-four he is on his third World Cup, the only man in the squad heading to a third, and against Wales he equalled brother André's all-time Ghana appearance record around the 120-cap mark, climbing toward thirty-four international goals; he was comfortably the team's standout in qualifying with seven goals. The club picture has fallen away beneath the international one: a quiet season at Leicester, forty-two Championship games but only six goals as the club suffered a second successive relegation, this time to League One, after which he was released and now travels effectively without a club. The level has dropped and the goals have thinned, but for Ghana he remains the man everything is hung upon, for better and worse — the No. 9 inherited and the whole structure shaped to his hold-up play. With his brother left out, he is the last of the Ayew era and very nearly the last thread to the side's recent past, a captain leading a team of strangers in what is, in all likelihood, his final tournament.

The one guaranteed starter in the team and the attacker the entire tournament plan is built to feed, Semenyo is the direct, duel-winning spearhead of Ghana's transition game — a forward who does not need possession to be dangerous, running onto the long balls Ayew flicks on and punishing the space a counter opens. He arrives the in-form man of the group on the back of a breakout season: roughly nineteen to twenty goals across all competitions, seventeen of them in the Premier League for Bournemouth before Manchester City paid around sixty-two and a half million pounds for him in January, a Player of the Month award along the way, and the winning backheel in the FA Cup final against Chelsea — a steep upward arc that has carried him from a useful Bournemouth forward to a champion of England inside a single year. At twenty-six he is entering his peak at exactly the right moment, and with Kudus gone the attacking weight of the side has shifted onto him. The caveat the local writers keep returning to is the gap between club and country: a player this devastating in the Premier League has just three goals in around thirty-four caps, and this World Cup is the stage on which he is finally asked to translate the club form into the national shirt. He is the closest thing this team has to a man who can win a game on his own, and the player Ghana's hopes most plainly ride on. Note that at City he competes for a place among a crowded forward line; for Ghana he is undroppable.

The other half of Ghana's pace-and-power front line, Williams is the vertical outlet and second forward, a relentless runner in behind who stretches deep blocks and turns a turnover into a sprint few defenders relish chasing over forty yards. At thirty-one he is a senior figure squarely in the back half of his peak, and his standing in the wider game is considerable — captain of Athletic Club, the first black captain in the Basque club's long and singular history, a man who chose Ghana over Spain and gave the national team a genuine name. The club season was a step down on his best: thirty La Liga appearances but a dipping return of three goals and six assists, the output thinned by injury interruptions and the natural decline of a forward whose game was always built on running more than finishing. The goals have tailed off, but the running is exactly the profile Queiroz's plan is designed to release, which keeps him among the projected eleven despite the modest numbers. This is his first World Cup after missing Qatar through the timing of his switch, a late and meaningful arrival for a player who has waited to wear the shirt at this stage; he is part of the senior leadership the young squad gathers around.

The squad's genuine unknown and its biggest gamble in either direction, Nuamah is the quick left-sided runner who lit up the Wales friendly off the bench — his run made the goal — and who has Augustine Arhinful and Asamoah Gyan both calling for him to start. The hesitation is the obvious one: he is barely back, returning from a 391-day anterior cruciate layoff with only around half an hour of football to his name all season, sharp in a cameo but untested over ninety minutes against a serious side. At twenty-two he is one of the brightest of the new generation, a Lyon winger whose ceiling is high and whose recovery has been a long and patient slog. This is his first World Cup, and it carries the double charge of breakout and risk: if he is fit, he may be the player most likely to change a game Ghana are not otherwise controlling; if the year out has dulled him, he is a passenger the tight squad can ill afford. How far Queiroz can lean on him across a demanding group is the open question, and one of the more compelling subplots of the tournament for the Black Stars.

The man handed André Ayew's vacated No. 10, a piece of symbolism that says more about the changing of the guard than about the pecking order — Thomas-Asante is a rotation striker behind Jordan Ayew rather than the creative presence the shirt traditionally implies. At twenty-seven he is in his prime and arrives off a promotion push with Coventry City in the Championship, a solid second-tier campaign that earned him his place in a thin attacking pool. A debutant with only a handful of caps, he is here as the secondary target option, a different kind of body to throw on when the side needs to chase a game or rest its captain. This is his first World Cup; his standing is that of useful squad depth given an outsized number, and the weight of that No. 10, in a side without its old creator, sits a little awkwardly on a player whose game is honest centre-forward running rather than invention.

One of the youngest forwards in the group and among its more speculative inclusions, Bonsu Baah is a quick wide attacker who has taken the well-trodden route to the Saudi Pro League with Al-Qadsiah, an unusual home for a twenty-one-year-old still establishing himself. He is a World Cup debutant with a small number of caps, here for his pace and his potential rather than a defined role, and the verified detail on his season is limited. This is his first World Cup and most plausibly one watched from the bench; his selection is part of Queiroz casting toward youth and legs to fill out a squad short of proven options. If he kicks on, he is one of the names that could feature in the rebuild ahead; for now he is a young runner kept in reserve.

The forward who actually led the line against Wales, deployed as the lone striker on the night while Jordan Ayew and the runners worked around him, Adu is a young centre-forward whose Wales start may flatter his place in the tournament order now that the headline forwards are integrated. At twenty-two he is an emerging player making his way in the Czech top flight with Viktoria Plzeň, a respectable if unflashy European home, and a debutant with only a few caps to his name. This is his first World Cup, and his standing sits between depth and the future: a young striker given a real run-out in the warm-up who may yet find himself behind Ayew, Williams and the others when the games matter. He is one of the new generation Queiroz has gambled on, valued for energy and movement, here to push and to learn.