Black Stars will have two assistant coaches – GFA official confirms

This revelation was made known by GFA Executive Council Member, Fredrick Acehampong during an interview on Citi TV on Wednesday night.

“The appointments are not done yet, well the Black Stars at least. We are in the process of appointing a second assistant coach to help both Akonnor and David Duncan. So in the coming days, we will make that announcement once we have done the necessary consultations, Fred Achi as he is affectionately called stressed.”

The decision to appoint two assistant coaches, according to Mr Acheampong is in line with the GFA’s objective of grooming enough local coaches who will understudy and be ready to make the step up in future.

Even in the past where the Ghana Football Association has hired a foreign coach, it was an unwritten rule that the assistant will also be a local coach so that there will be knowledge transfer. This policy is what saw the appointment of Kwesi Appiah as Ghana’s assistant coach to Claude Le Roy in 2008 and that tradition has continued until today.

Earlier this week, the Ghana Football Association announced the appointment of former Ghana captain Charles Kwablan Akonnor as the new substantive coach of the Black Stars.

Mr Acheampong also confirmed that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) never considered replacing former Black Stars head coach Kwesi Appiah with a foreign coach.

Akonnor replaces Kwesi Appiah whose contract with the national team expired in December 2019.

Before the announcement of the appointment, there were some speculations that the top management job of the Black Stars was going to a foreign coach.

But speaking to Bernard Avle on Point of View, Frederick Acheampong, said the association have always had in its plans to give the position to a local coach.

“He has had chances. He has been to three major tournaments and I think that he has been one of the coaches that have had the chance to do whatever possible with the Black Stars and so we thought it was time to give the opportunity to another Ghanaian to see what he can do. So, we tried to go in for quality and someone who buys into the mentality of where we want to go with the Black Stars. It was a unanimous decision to go in for a local coach, there was no mention of a foreign coach even though we saw some speculations on social media. From the onset, our minds have been a local coach because we believe they can do it”.

C. K. Akonnor has signed a two-year contract to take charge of the Black Stars of Ghana until 2022.

He was a member of Kwesi Appiah’s technical team that recorded wins over South Africa and Sao Tome and Principe in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

This appointment follows the Ghana Football Association’s (GFA) decision to dissolve all the technical teams of the various levels of football.