World Cup 2026: “Ghana will treat every game as special” – Otto Addo

Head coach of Ghana’s senior men’s team, Otto Addo has indicated that the West African nation will treat every 2026 FIFA World Cup game as “special”.

The Black Stars have been drawn in Group L against England, Panama, and Croatia with many writing off the four time African champions from progressing out of the group.

Otto Addo, who led the 2010 quarter finalists to the 2022 edition in Qatar, says Ghana will attach seriousness to every fixture at the tournament to be co-hosted by Canada, USA and Mexico.

Ghana has qualified for its fifth FIFA World Cup

“I look forward to every game as special,” he told ghanafa.org.

“Very important for us is that we don’t underestimate any team. For sure, England is the favourite in that group but for me as a coach, to be honest, I’m looking at each and every game equally.”

“I’m hoping that we have a good start against Panama that will be very, very crucial. It will make the other games a little bit more relaxed and easier for the players psychologically. We will use the window of March for test matches, and then see.”

The German trained tactician gave positive reviews about the team’s performance, citing the run up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers where Ghana topped Group I with 25 points from ten matches.

“I think we did very well in the qualifiers,” he said. “We didn’t lose a single official game, like the qualifying games, we did very well. We just played one draw and the rest we won, so we had quite a good year in 2025, after a bad year in 2024’’.

“Even though we have a very young team, we really, really did well, had a good harmony in the team, good union” he added.

Ghana will begin the FIFA World Cup campaign against Panama in Toronto on June 17 before facing the Three Lions England and Croatia in the other Group L matches on June 23 and 27 respectively.