Ghana’s amputee football team, the reigning champions of Africa, have been drawn in a demanding group for the 2026 Amputee Football World Cup, where they will face Angola, Colombia and Iraq.
Main photo: Bieniecki Piotr / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The draw, reported by Ghana’s JoyNews on Saturday, places Ghana in Group D of the tournament, which will be staged in San Juan de los Lagos, Mexico, from 13 to 22 November.
A familiar African rival
The group throws up an all-African meeting with Angola, one of the continent’s strongest amputee football nations, alongside South American opposition in Colombia and an Iraqi side from Asia. With only a handful of games to secure progress, there is little room for a slow start.
Champions with pedigree
Ghana travel to Mexico with a strong record behind them. They won the African Amputee Football Championship in Tanzania in 2021, beating Liberia 3-2 in the final, and took gold at the African Para Games on home soil in Accra in 2023 with a 2-1 win over Morocco.
They beat Morocco by the same scoreline in Cairo in 2024 to be crowned African champions again, a victory that booked their place at this year’s World Cup.
The squad for the tournament is expected to be unveiled in Accra on 28 September.
Why it matters
Amputee football rarely gets the spotlight given to the Black Stars, yet Ghana’s team has quietly become one of the standard-bearers for African sport. Its players are proof of what disabled athletes can achieve when given a platform.
A strong run in Mexico would put Ghana, and Africa, firmly on the map in a sport that is growing worldwide, and would strengthen the case for better funding and support for para-athletes across the continent.
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