Who’s Ghana's next coach ? || VAR with Sammy Bartels

With Otto Addo out, the big question is… who takes over the Black Stars?

On VAR, Sammy Bartels dives into:

- Top contenders for the job
- What Ghana really needs in a new coach
- Local vs foreign debate 
- The future direction of the Black Stars

 Who’s the right man to lead Ghana forward?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The month of March started with a lot of patriotic and nationalistic fevers. Most Ghanaians rushed to get a Ghanaian Jesse representing the Black Stars of Ghana. The month of March started with a lot of patriotic and nationalistic fevers. Most Ghanaians rushed to get a Ghanaian Jesse representing the Black Stars of Ghana. You could not find a Jesse to buy in town because most of them had been snapped up as we celebrated Ghana's Independence Day. But as the month comes to an end, Ghana finds itself in uncharted territory, having to look for a new coach ahead of the 2026 World Cup and seemingly in crisis concerning the future of the Black Stars and their prospects at the next edition of the World Cup. The selection of the next Black Stars coach certainly requires a VAR analysis. My name is Samuel Bartels and welcome to this edition of VAR. The big question everybody is asking is who takes over the poisoned chalice that is the coaching job of the Black Stars after Coach Utuado was brutally sacked as coach of the Black Stars in the nation in which he was born by the nation that he ended up playing football for and whose national team he ended up coaching. It's quite clear that Ghana does not need a project. What we need is a firefighter and someone capable within the next 70 days of selecting a team, having a clear identity and having the requisite experience and presence of mind to go into a World Cup, not intimidated and be able to, at a minimum, secure the points that will take Ghana to the knockout stages of the competition. Rightfully so, there has been a lot of speculation. A lot of names are being thrown up, and a lot more names will be thrown up. It's important to note that there are certain parameters in which Ghana's next coach will be selected. The first one is financial, because we do not have a caplanch, we do not have an open check concerning the next coach. Ghana would have to pay some form of compensation to Coach Otwado. The Ministry of Sports and Recreation has a ceiling as far as what it is capable of paying. And then there's the issue of continuity. Could someone who does not understand African football, who particularly does not have a measure of how the Ghana national team would build within two months, be able to handle the Black Stars? The other key thing is the working relationship. Coaches over the last seven years since 2019 under the Ket Okreku administration have underwhelmed and underperformed, to say the least. The question everybody is asking is: what has been the nature of the working conditions and what has been the nature of the working relationship with the president of the Ghana Football Association, Ket O'Creku and his executive? Are the coaches just the four guys, the scapegoats? Is there something deeper that signals a malaise within the Black Stars and their performances in recent years? And has that been corrected? And could any coach, regardless of his qualification and track record, be able to go past that? The FA itself needs an introspection. So now let's look at the names that are coming up. Top of the list. And I'm going to grade these coaches as A, A, B, C, or D, depending on where they stand at the moment. Top of the wish list for Ghana appears to be Heavy Renault, and Ghana and Heavy Renault go way back to the pre-2008 African Nations Cup period. He was brought by Claude Lewar as a physical trainer, although he had his own aspirations as coach. But when the crucial moment came and he put in his bit to replace Claude Lewar, he was 10 down by Ghana. That seemed to have been a blessing in disguise for him because he went on to become a very successful African Cup of Nations coach, winning the Nations Cup with Zambia, and then La Côte d'Ivoire before assailing to World Cup Heights by coaching the Saudi Arabian national team to the World Cup, famously winning a game against Lionel Messi's Argentina. Well, he is the dream candidate. He knows African football, and that's what's working for him. He's a tournament specialist and he's shown his ability to prepare, take teams into the tournament, and in the case of the AFCON, win it in the case of the World Cup, put up a creditable display. He's currently available after his stints with France and their national team. He has flirted with Saudi Arabia, but he seems like the sort of person who will be tempted by the prospect of leading one of his dream teams or a team that at some point in his career he wanted to coach to return to the World Cup. So what are his suitabilities? Well, quite high because he demands immediate discipline. He works his teams physically. His teams are physical and fit specimen who are able to play high-pressing games and play for the entire duration of the game. The major challenge, as I mentioned, is financial because he has been used to the hundreds of thousands of the Middle East and some of the biggest paydays in his career. With Otouado being paid 50,000, would Every Renard be willing to accept anywhere around such an amount? The other big question will be the backroom. Assuming the Ghana Football Association wants to maintain the current backroom and allow whichever coach is coming to slot into that. Would the coach, and in this case, Ever be comfortable working with this backroom staff? History suggests that Heavy Renard at least comes with three backroom staff that he would want to be part of his backroom staff because these are people that he's worked with successfully and he would want to have in his corner. How would the FA handle this? Kindly Ghana has perhaps one of the biggest technical teams in African football, but in our history, the biggest technical team that we've ever assembled to back a coach. How would the FA reconcile these two positions? This will be key to determining whether Every Renal gets this job. Other than that, Eve Renard for me is an A-plus candidate as far as suitability track record and potential is concerned. Now let's go to perhaps the most pragmatic appointment among the list, and that is the appointment of James Kwisia Pia as coach of the Black Stars. I will grade Kwisia Pia and A behind Eve Renard for a number of reasons. He knows the Black Stars very well, he knows the politics of Ghana football very well. In fact, he understands the boardroom politics of Ghana football because not only has he coached the Black Stars, at one point he was an executive committee member of the Ghana Football Association. Now, whether that's a plus or a minus is another thing, because having to sit in the XCOM would have meant that he would have been privy to some of the inner workings of the Ghana Football Association. Well, his latest achievements have been with Sudan, whom he qualified for the last African Cup of Nations and whom he assisted in the African Nations Championship to get all the way into the semifinal stage of the competition. He also previously qualified Ghana to the 2020, 2014 World Cup. Although that was a quite tumultuous period, which was marked by the Halabalu over the money issues, and Kwisiapia will probably feel that his achievement at the highest stage of football was robbed because of that. Perhaps he hasn't finished business with Ghana and he may relish the opportunity of getting another chance to coach Ghana. Now, how about his suitability? Well, you could say that fans are wary of recycled appointments. And the history about second comings and third comings for the Black Stars of Ghana is not a good one. Bukadziza returned after his glorious qualification of the Black Stars to the Nations Cup in 1992, to the job in 2003, but he ended up leaving in disgrace and ignominy after his failure to qualify the Black Stars for the 2004 African Cup of Nations. His legacy tarnished forever. Milovanrea Ivachu took Ghana to the quarterfinal stage of the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, returned for a second stint under certificate of an emergency, summoned by Ket O'Kreku and his conies. In the end, he also limped out of the Ghana job, disgraced after Ghana crashed out of the first round of the African Cup of Nations. And then there's Kwesia Pia himself and his second coming, ending up with the forgettable event of 2014 when Ghana qualified for the World Cup. In the end, he was kicked out by Ket Okreku and then replaced by CK Akono. And perhaps the latest indication that second comings and third comings don't really work for the Black Stars is the case of the case of Coach Ottoado himself, the only coach in Ghana's history to qualify Ghana to two World Cups. The first time he did it went to the World Cup and won one match. And his second stint has ended with his brutal second after the losses against Austria and against Germany. And so Chrisia Pia will be mindful of this record of second comings and third comings. The other big problem is whether Sudan will be willing to part ways with the coach, even if it's temporarily, to allow him to take the Ghana job for the World Cup. Will it be a short-term appointment? Will it be a long-term appointment? Will elements within the Ghana Football Association themselves be comfortable to bring in Quisiapia, seeing the points of conflict in the past, how he was treated during his last exit, and perhaps his understanding and knowledge of the inner workings of Ghana football and perhaps their rumors around possible interference and how he's likely to do that. Well, he's a pragmatist, and we know that he's learned a lot from his previous associations with the Black Stars. People have raised questions about his suitability from a tactical point of view. But Kwisiapia's knowledge of the local setup is a match against any other potential candidate for the Black Stars. And if you are looking for a quick fix job within a 70-day window, then perhaps your man is James Kwisiapia. In the mix also, interestingly, has emerged Wally Dura Gragui. And he would be perhaps also rated as a grade A, probably most probably because of his most recent record in international football, coaching Morocco to the semifinal stage of the World Cup, the first ever time that an African country has actually pulled that off and walking Morocco to the final of the African Nations Cup, where perhaps bats for that attempted Panenka by Brahim Diaz and if Fatez had gone in the direction of Morocco, he would have crowned his period as Moroccan coach with the AFCON and still been in charge of Morocco. Rumor suggests that he might be tempted because he has an interest in this job and he would be interested in going back to the World Cup. He proved that in 2022 that he can perform as uh at the highest level. The big question becomes were coach who was intimately familiar with the Moroccan setup, having played as a coach, a player in the Moroccan national team, having coached at the local level, and then having coached the Moroccan national team, you would think that that familiarity may have been part of a success. How would he fare coaching the West African side with like Ghana, with all the history that comes with it, with all the pressure that comes with expectations and within the setup of the Ghana Football Association? One thing is certain that Regraguy has been in that position where he was given a very short period within which to raise a team for a major tournament. And so could be another one who is familiar and who might be able to pull off this height for Ghana within a 70-day period. Now, there are a few other outliers and I'll quickly run through them. Now, one name nobody is mentioning, but I want to put in for this job is Pizzo Motsemani of South Africa, the former uh Elali coach who also coached the black, uh who also coached the Bafana Bafana at some point in his career. I would call him the jingler in this matter because he's a serial winner who understands the African terrain. Now, in terms of suitability, he's highly suitable again because of his understanding of African football. He's a tactical pragmatist who would not overcomplicate things and will play very simple football, but he's a winner in terms of his mentality. Perhaps the biggest challenge will be a matter of pride. Would Ghana appoint a South African to lead his national team to the World Cup? Again, given the recent friendly rivalries and the tiffster Ghana has had with South Africa, would Ghana think that we'll become a laughing stock if a South African is heading um Ghana's campaign at the World Cup? Well, for Pito Motsemani to be appointed, Ghana will have to swallow a lot of pride. And again, it will come down to the terms of such an engagement. Another name that is being thrown out purely because he has done self-advertisement over the last few years is Tom Saint Fit, who is a bit of a journeyman on the African country. He worked wonders with Gambia. In Mali, things were not exactly smooth. He came up against Otado and could not fox Otwado in the same World Cup qualification group. But he has publicly always expressed his desire to take up the Black Stars job if it was made available to him after his stint with Mali. He's a specialist when it comes to picking and achieving African countries and turning them into winners like it did against Gambia. He seems good for a short term period. Having played against Ghana in the World Cup qualifiers, he would have an understanding of exactly how Ghana plays, the players that Ghana has at the moment, and what they can do. The big question is that whilst he's turned around smaller countries and perhaps he's worked with Mali where he didn't exactly hit the highs that he hit with Gambia, the big question is: would a World Cup tournament be too big a stage for Saint Fit to start his dream job of coaching the Black Stars? That'll be a big question to answer. Now let's look at the outliers. People have brought on the possibility that Lars Bjokren, who is a coach of the Black Queens, should be considered for this job. Well, my preliminary objection is that if he's the Black Queens coach and the Black Queens qualification process for the 2027 World Cup, which is his primary KPI, has not been achieved. Let's not confuse things. In fact, I don't even think he should be on the technical team of the Black Stars for one reason, which is that the postponed Women's African Cup of Nations will be taking place around the same time as the World Cup. And he needs the focus that is required to qualify the Black Queens for the 2027 World Cup. Desmond Offair, who used to coach the under 20s, now coaches the Olympic team, has been touted. Again, I think this will come too early for Desmond. Desmond has not proven himself. He's better being a part of the Black Stars assistance setup and learning the ropes. For me, qualification of the Black Meteors to the Olympic Games in 2028 should be the main focus and KPI for Offair to allow him to build his career. It's too early for the Black Stars. The same thing would apply to Laia Kinson, who could be part of the setup, but I don't think should be the head job. Ultimately, the question then becomes which appointment and which personality and under which conditions would the FA be willing to make the right appointment? I can understand that coaching CVs are critical in the appointment, but ultimately, as we've seen things in Ghana, the factors that lead to the appointment of a coach go beyond just these factors. There are personal and working style factors that the ministry and the Ghana footballization will take into consideration. Above all of that is the financial commitment that comes with hiring a top coach. And for me, these will be key considerations in appointing the coach. I'll wrap up this edition of VAR by drawing your attention to the historical antecedents. Historically, successful coaches appointed less than three months before a World Cup is quite abysmal, as abysmal as just about 15% success. However, there are outliers like Zlatko Dalich, who took Croatia to the World Cup and is still in charge of the World Cup. Look at in 1994, the coach who took Romania to the World Cup had been appointed not many months before the World Cup, but he took them to their best ever appearance at the World Cup. There may be a few outliers, but by and large, historically, most of the coaches who have come in at such short notice have underperformed and have underwhelmed. And this includes some of the biggest coaches you'd have heard of. Spengoran Ericsson took uh La Côte d'Ivoire to the World Cup in 2010 and completely underperformed. Fernando Hieru took over the Spanish team and underperformed. Even Sir Alex Ferguson at the 1986 World Cup where he stepped in for Jockstein, who passed during the playoff stage prior to the World Cup, underperformed. And this history should guide Ghana in making the decision as to the next coach of the Black Stars. So to finish off this, let me just say, as Jesse Jones said in his famous song, Krumbeauda and Ubutum, it's not enough to just throw out names of potential coaches who coach the Black Stars. The most important thing, one of the key factors to consider is who can Ghana afford and who can the current setup of the Football Association and the ministry work with comfortably without interfering with their job and without causing them to stumble, as many others have done. In the next episode of VAR, we will look at the role of the Ministry of Sports and Recreation and look at the role of the Ghana Football Association, which is also often understated in this serial failure of coaches to achieve the intended goals with the Black Stars. My name is Samuel Bartels. This is VAR. Subscribe to our content. Love our content and stay with us as we keep across all the biggest stories in the world of sports, specifically football. And on these occasions, our build up towards the 2026 World Cup. See you for the next episode.