Black Satellites, Karim Zito has revealed the stress he went through in pruning the U20 squad to 40 to commence preparations ahead of November’s WAFU Zone B U-20 Cup of Nations.

According to Zito, 240 players were given the chance to justify their inclusions and currently 40 players are in camp at the Ghanaman Soccer of Excellence in Prampram.

In an exclusive interview with FootballMadeInGhana.com, the former Asante Kotoko coach revealed the selections gave him sleepless nights due to the abundance of talent.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said.

“They were about 240 players. I had requested the FA to allow me pick scouts who went round to look for players for me with a specific criteria scouting.

“The earlier plan was to select players who were born after 2001. So only 2002 players were eligible but later I was told the players born in 2001 are eligible so that made our scope very huge.

“So we had players from the scouting, then the U17 squad for last year were also added that swelled the number,” he added.

The coach also touched on the importance of transition and why he gave the previous U17 squad the chance to be with the U20.

“As a country we have to observe transition of players from one level to the other hence I included the previous U17 players to this new U20 team.

“I’m trying to do what we’re supposed to do as coach so that at the end of the day we get the database of our boys who are playing in the U15, U17 and U20 and then progressively we will see ourselves going,” he noted.

The Black Satellites have been drawn alongside Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire in Group B of the WAFU Qualifying tournament to be staged in Togo.

The tournament is scheduled to be staged between November 14 -29, 2020.

Winners and Runner-Up of the tournament will participate in the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations slated for February 2021.