Ghana Away Shirt

Ghana played a great game against England in the group stages of the 2026 World Cup. Their disciplined low block never looked like breaking and, no matter how many of its superstars England threw at them, the Ghanaians held firm and looked dangerous on the break.

Ghana's "Black Stars" are one of African football's great names - four-time AFCON champions, lifting the trophy in 1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982, and so dominant that they earned the right to keep the original trophy. Their golden moment so far came in 2010, when they reached the quarter-finals in South Africa and came within minutes of becoming the first African side ever to reach a semi-final.

However, it was Ghana's gold and patterned away kit that was generating much of the social media chatter, as fans looked for something more exciting than the limited goalmouth action to focus on during their game against England.

And it really is a kit worthy of further investigation - so let's #GetTheShirtIn and dig a bit deeper into Ghana's culture and past to reveal the secrets behind this beautiful kit.

The patterns sewn into it are said to represent the famous Makola Market in the centre of Ghana's capital - Accra.

Makola Market is far more than just a place to buy and sell things. Built in 1924, it has sat at the very heart of life in Accra for over a century. If you need car parts, fresh fruit, school books, handcrafted jewellery, cooking pots or even giant African land snails... you'll find them here. In fact, locals have a saying that if you can't find something in Makola Market, then it probably doesn't exist anywhere else in Ghana.

At first glance it looks like complete chaos. Narrow lanes packed with thousands of traders, customers squeezing past each other, goods piled high in every direction. But beneath the apparent disorder is an incredibly organised system that has developed over generations, with traders specialising in different products and knowing exactly who to send you to if they don't stock what you're looking for.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Makola Market is who runs it. Like many markets across West Africa, it is overwhelmingly dominated by women. For generations, daughters have learned their trade from their mothers through apprenticeships, building businesses that provide financial independence and support entire families. Many of the market's most respected figures are known as 'market queens' - elected leaders who settle disputes, enforce rules, organise support for traders and help keep this enormous commercial machine running smoothly.

The market has even survived attempts to wipe it off the map. During Ghana's economic crisis in 1979, the government blamed rising prices and shortages on Makola's traders. Soldiers demolished the market, believing its destruction would somehow solve the country's problems. Instead, one of Ghana's greatest trading institutions simply refused to disappear. Trading gradually returned, the market was rebuilt, and today Makola is once again one of the busiest and most important commercial centres in West Africa.

To understand why Makola Market became so important, you first have to understand Accra and Ghana itself.

The Ga were far more sophisticated than many people imagine. Rather than one large kingdom, they organised themselves into a network of independent city-states, each ruled by a Mantse (chief) and advised by councils of elders who governed everything from justice and trade to defence and diplomacy. Their location on the Gulf of Guinea made them expert seafarers and merchants, connecting inland peoples with ships arriving from across the Atlantic long before European powers took control of the coast. They became wealthy exporting gold, ivory and salt while importing cloth, beads and metals, and were skilled craftsmen in their own right, producing fine pottery, woven textiles and intricate beadwork that still forms an important part of Ghanaian culture today (see picture).

Their greatest achievement, however, was perhaps political rather than military. For centuries they successfully balanced trade and alliances with powerful inland states such as the Asante while also negotiating with competing Portuguese, Dutch, Danish and British merchants, ensuring that Accra remained one of the most important commercial hubs on the entire West African coast.

The Europeans called the region the Gold Coast, and for good reason. Vast quantities of gold were exported from here, alongside ivory and, tragically, enslaved people during the Atlantic slave trade. Britain gradually defeated the powerful Asante Kingdom in a series of wars during the nineteenth century and, in 1877, moved the colonial capital from Cape Coast to Accra. From that moment, Accra exploded in size, becoming the administrative and commercial heart of Britain's most valuable West African colony.

But colonial rule would not last forever. On 6 March 1957, the Gold Coast became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to win independence from European colonial rule. Led by the charismatic Kwame Nkrumah, the new nation deliberately rejected its colonial name, choosing instead "Ghana" in honour of the great medieval West African Empire. Nkrumah believed Ghana's freedom was only the beginning, declaring that its independence would mean little until the whole continent had thrown off colonial rule. His words proved prophetic as dozens of African nations followed in the years that came after.

Today, Accra is a modern city of well over two million people, but places like Makola Market remain its beating heart. They are reminders that, long before Ghana became famous for football, cocoa or gold, its greatest strength has always been its people - traders, entrepreneurs and communities whose resilience has carried the city through empire, colonialism and independence alike.