Would-be Ghana youth international Kofi Ntiamoah Nimeley will not be able to play for Ghana at the 2013 FIFA U20 World Cup on technical grounds, MTNFootball.com can exclusively reveal.Â
The 2009 FIFA U17 World Cup winner with Switzerland wrote to the Ghana Football Association last month stating his decision to switch allegiance official.
The FC Basel youth player appeared to be one of the likely foreign-based players to be included to the Black Satellites team ahead of this summer's tournament in Turkey.
His dream of playing for Ghana at the U20 level has however been dealt a massive blow through a FIFA rule which prevents him from competing in this year's tournament.
"Each Participating Member Association shall ensure that all players of its representative team were born on or after 1 January 1993," the FIFA rules stated clearly.
Despite being under 20-years of age by the time the tournament kicks off, Nimeley cannot compete as he was born outside the stipulated year of admission.
The right-back was born on 11th December, 1992 – making him clearly ineligible to feature for the Black Satellites.
He will however be eligible to play for Ghana beyond the U20 level if his nationality switch is granted by FIFA once the Ghana FA makes a request on his behalf.
Nimeley was born in Ghana but lived almost his entire life in Switzerland where he eventually got the opportunity to play for the Swiss U17 side that won the World Cup in 2009.
He is currently on the threshold of breaking into the first team of Swiss giants FC Basel where he has come through the ranks from juvenile level.