When thinking of Ghanaian football, more than likely, the thought of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa springs to mind, the excitement they bought, the joyous fans and unfortunately the agonising penalty miss by Asamoah Gyan in the quarter-final against Luis Suárez’ Uruguay. Since that fateful day the trend on the national team has been on a downward trajectory, they have managed to qualify for the next World Cup but not convincingly.

Somewhat surprisingly, Ghana deserves a lot of praise for bringing so much talent into the football sphere. Specifically, the Right To Dream Academy (RTD) in the Eastern Region of the nation. Why is this academy so important? Why are we talking about it? Unknown to many, the RTD is growing, and the players produced from their system is only growing larger, across Africa, Europe and Worldwide.

RTD Logo

The Beginning

Founded in 1999 by Tom Vernon, the RTD is a global network of youth football. The focus is to nurture talent from underprivileged areas, not only coaching football but also giving an education to students with the goal of improving them as a player and as a person. Tom Vernon has a unique story himself, he was in fact Manchester United’s African scout, eventually deciding to change his career path.

Why doesn’t everyone join RTD? Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple. The RTD hold recruitment tournaments in which they invite locals to try out for, most commonly, their youngest team. The majority of students join at the age of 11. 75 recruitment tournaments are held with roughly 25,000 children showing interest, from this a total of 18 scholarships are offered. These 18 scholarships are then given a five-year contract for the academy.

European Expansion

We will look at some of the graduates a bit further on but for now we turn to the 2010’s. The next steps in the RTD journey, going European. RTD expanded to Denmark. In 2016 RTD founder Tom Vernon acquired FC Nordsjælland, a Danish Superliga club. Vernon’s vision was to use the Danish club alongside the RTD academy. Players from the RTD after graduating now had an opportunity to move to Denmark as they begin their transition into professional football. Not only has this brought success for the RTD but FC Nordsjælland have also seen the benefits, they too have seen an increase in high potential youth players, with notable names now playing in top European leagues.

After expanding to Europe, the future looked bright for the RTD and the scholars that were accepted. In 2021 the scope of the project grew so much more. The Mansour Group acquired a majority stake in the RTD. Investing $120 million, this shifted the academy from a non-governmental organisation to a global enterprise under corporate ownership. Now, you could say that the Mansour Group have come in and taken away from something that was loved and adored by African’s, but since the takeover, the Mansour group have only looked to expand the project. Perhaps the humble roots have been uplifted but the goals still remain the same.

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Worldwide Academies

The RTD expanded further with the opening of the Egypt academy in West Cairo. Another youth project allowing both boys and girls to seek opportunities in football. Not every player though could use the academies and go through to FC Nordsjælland in Denmark. The Mansour Group had to work around this, and with the acquisition of Tutankhamun FC, also in 2021, this had the answer. Changing the name to FC Masar, the club is a professional women’s team and in 2024 managed to qualify for the CAF Women’s Champions League for the first time, and in fact they finished 3rd that season.

An academy in Ghana, a pathway in Denmark with similar academy visions, an academy and a professional women’s team in Egypt, what was next for the RTD? Simple, expand further. In 2025, the San Diego FC RTD Academy officially opened. The first voyage for the RTD into North America, the academy was open to youth players between the ages of 11 -13. San Diego FC entered the MLS in the 2025/26 season for the very first time, obviously not enough time for the youth academy to feed players into the first tea, but success was seen regardless. San Diego FC finished top of the Western Conference at the first attempt. With the academy now a part of the RTD organisation, they can only expect to get better.

As of December 2025, this is the current size of the RTD but expansions are already underway. The academy in Ghana is expected to move to a new state-of-the-art facility in 2027 with construction beginning in 2026. Don’t be surprised to see the organisation expand further in the years to come.

Right To Dream Graduates

With the academies and clubs spoken about, what players have been produced from the RTD? In fact, a few graduates are currently plying their trade in the Premier League, the likes of Mohammed Kudus, Simon Adingra, Mathias Jensen and Mikkel Damsgaard all came through the RTD academy and have reached the highest level of the game. Kamaldeen Suleman currently plays for Serie A side Atalanta amd Mohamed Diomande is playing for Rangers in the Scottish Premiership. Danish international Adreas Skov Olsen also came through the academy at FC Nordsjælland and now plays in the Bundesliga for VfL Wolfsburg.

The future looks bright for the RTD, in 2024 Egypt’s academy saw its first graduates with San Diego’s academy needed a couple more years to see some graduates. Of course, we focus on the football, but it should be stated that the academies also develop academic skills. Several of the graduates from the RTD swap football for academics. The achievements of all the RTD graduates can be seen on their website.

What started as a project that focused on giving underprivileged Ghanaian footballers an opportunity in the game has transformed into a global institution for football and academics. Yes, now owned by the Mansour Group, which takes away from the feel-good story that ever so slightly, the mission remains the same. Give opportunities and allow youngsters to flourish on and off the pitch.

Written and Researched by BSc Cavan Campbell

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