Correspondence from the Northern Region
Euphoria swept through the University for Development Studies (UDS) on Sunday, September 28, 2025, after its men’s football team achieved the unimaginable, defeating Brazil’s Paulista University 2-1 to win the International University Sports Federation (FISU) Men’s Football World Cup in China.
On the Tamale and Nyankpala campuses, students who had gathered to watch the final on giant screens exploded into wild celebrations when UDS sealed the historic victory. The decisive moment came deep into extra time, when the Ghanaians scored with a spectacular “Olimpico”.
For UDS, a multi-campus university headquartered in Tamale, the triumph was more than just a sporting victory; it was a statement of pride. The win made them the first African university to ever lift the prestigious trophy.
One jubilant student summed up the mood to GhanaWeb.
“We are no more the second-best public university; we are the world champions,” he said.
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Hamdan Wumpeka, an alumnus of the university, called for national recognition for the players. “They deserve national honours, to be the only African University at this year’s tournament and the first African university to lift the trophy, they deserve it,” he said.
In 2024, UDS was ranked the third-best university in Ghana and 35th out of 129 institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa by the Times Higher Education (THE). On Sunday, they added a global football crown to their growing legacy.
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